True Shinobi
by Syfes
Summary: AU, An old shinobi saying goes: A true ninja must be able to overcome any obstacle of life, face the hardships with determination and come out of it even stronger... Naruto and his team will find out just how true these words can be. NaruHina
1. A new beginning

**Title:** True Shinobi

**Chapter Title:**A new beginning

**Author:** Syfes

**Summary:** AU, Just another 'What-if-Naruto-would-have-been-put-in-another-team' story, but not just some cheap imitation. It will most likely not follow the original timeline.

Naruto starts to realize just what it really means to be a true shinobi and after a near fatal encounter on one of his mission, he quickly starts taking his career as a ninja more seriously. No more idiocy, no more flashy orange jumpsuit and he and his team are going to kick ass! (No insane kyuubi-powers though)  
Pairings: Naruto/Hinata, others not yet decided.

**This is a beta-ed edition of the first chapter. Not much has changed except for some rephrasing and small corrections.**

* * *

Naruto woke up in a very good mood. Today he was being assigned to a genin-team, and though he was still a bit tired from his fight with Mizuki, he had managed to get out of bed at 7AM. This gave the young shinobi enough time for a shower, to get dressed, and eat breakfast before he would go to the academy, which was about a 15 minute run from his apartment. There was one little problem with all this though. The clock on his bedside table didn't agree with him, as it showed 8:19AM. 

_Eleven minutes later:_

"YES, I MADE IT!"

Every face in the class turned towards the door and sweat dropped as Naruto leapt into the classroom with a cry of victory, just as the bell sounded, signaling the start of classes.

"Naruto, sit down!" Yelled Iruka frustrated from the front of the classroom.

The energetic blond cursed as he found only one open seat between Ino and Shikamaru. While Iruka had started lecturing about the responsibilities they would carry as genin, Naruto was trying to tune out Ino's and Shikamaru's bickering and failing miserably. When Iruka started reading the list of teams, thankfully they both got quiet.

"…Team 5: Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura, …"

'SAKURA-CHAN! PLEASE LET ME BE THE LAST!' Naruto yelled in his mind.

"…and Uchiha Sasuke."

'NOOOOOOOO!'

"Your jounin sensei is Hatake Kakashi. Team 6: Mey-…"

'DAMN THAT BASTARD! YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR BACK UCHIHA BECAUSE I'LL GET YOU BACK FOR THIS!' Naruto once more yelled into his mind. With his eyes, he was trying to burn a hole into Sasuke's head, a few rows in front of him. Meanwhile Sasuke was trying to get his arm out of an ecstatic Sakura's grip."

"Take that Ino-pig!"

Ino just pretended she didn't hear the girl and focused her attention back on Iruka.

"… Team 8: Uzumaki Naruto, …"

'OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!'

"…, Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata."

'Great, I get stuck with the two biggest weirdo's in the class. DAMN YOU SASUKE!'

"Your jounin sensei is Shiranui Genma. Team 9:…"

Naruto watched his two new team mates. Hinata was red in the face, and putting her index fingers together. Shino never moved a muscle. For all he knew the guy could have fallen asleep behind the collar of his long coat and those sunglasses.

"...and finally Team 12: Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Choji. Your sensei is Sarutobi Asuma. That's all! Your Sensei's should be arriving soon to pick you up."

Iruka left the room as the teams went to sit with each other. Naruto and Shino went over to sit with Hinata.

"So…" Naruto started.

Hinata was shyly staring at him, still putting her index fingers together. Shino just sat beside him looking towards the door of the classroom and didn't move a muscle.

'Damn, I'm going to have to get these two to loosen up a bit. Why can't I be with my beloved Sakura-Chan!'

"Team 8?"

"Hai!" Naruto and Hinata responded while Shino remained silent but nodded.

"I'm Genma, your new sensei. Follow me."

As they got up and followed him out of the academy building, Naruto was trying to decide whether this guy was cool or weird. It was hard to decide. Who in his right mind would stick a senbon needle into his mouth. The bandana and standard jounin outfit looked pretty cool though. Several minutes later they ended up in a nearby park and they sat down on a bench, their new sensei standing before them.

"Welcome to team 8. My name is Shiranui Genma. First of all I want you to introduce yourselves to me. You know, your name, likes, dislikes, hobby's, jutsu you know, your blood type, … Anything you want us to know about you. Remember that you guys and I will be working close together for the next few years, so we need to know a lot about each other. Naruto, why don't you begin?"

'Blood type? I knew it. He IS another weirdo.' He thought, but answered the question anyway.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, I hate the Uchiha bastard and my hobby… eating ramen I guess. The best jutsu I know is Kage-Bunshin. I don't even know what blood type I have and I want to become Hokage!"

"Next?"

"M-my name is H-Hyuuga Hinata. I-I like flowers. I dislike rude people. I-I don't really have a hobby. I don't know any special jutsu except using my B-byakugan. M-my blood type is O."

Unknowingly Naruto and Genma thought exactly the same thing.

'That girl really needs to loosen up.'

"Shino?"

"My name is Aburame Shino. I use bugs for my jutsu."

"Anything else you would like to share with us?"

"…"

'Damn' Genma thought, 'Their characters are so different but their skills are almost exactly what I'm looking for.' Although it wasn't official, his team was supposed to become a reconnaissance-specialized team. Hinata's byakugan and Shino's bugs would be great for tracking. His weapon skills and Hinata's jyuuken would enable them to take out an enemy quickly, if the situation required it. Naruto's elusiveness would allow him to move around unnoticed more easily. The boy's stamina and his kage-bunshins combined with Genma's trap making skills would allow them to fight of possible pursuers when retreating.

Genma knew a lot about Naruto's elusive skills first hand. As a chuunin less than a year ago he had chased the boy many times with several others, and still he managed to stay out of their hands for long periods of time. They always caught him in the end though, but with a little training, he was sure he could get him up to a level where most chuunin would never be able to track him down. In his mind, Genma was still trying to figure out if that would be a good or a bad thing.

He didn't know a lot about the other two, though he knew that in the Aburame and Hyuuga clan, kids started training at a very early age. Hinata's jyuuken compared with older and more experienced Hyuuga would probably be considered quite pathetic, though compared to other genin her techniques would look nearly flawless. Shino most likely had lived with bugs since shortly after he was born and thus should already work very well together with them. Combine that with several years of training as a kid and you had a well accomplished shinobi already.

What this team would need to work on would be teamwork and maybe even more important than that was strategy. Considering the Aburame clan's specialization in data gathering and silent assassination, the kid probably had already been taught the basics but the other two members of his team had most likely no experience whatsoever. This was a must though, for a reconnaissance-specialized team.

Overall Genma was quite confident. Inthree months time, the teams would be evaluated and only three of the eight teams would be allowed to continue as active genin. The other 5 teams would be disbanded and most of those wouldn't be allowed to continue as shinobi. The few that would be allowed to continue, would probably end up somewhere in administrative functions. The teachers weren't allowed to tell their teams about it though.

"So now we know a bit about each other, we can get to the next part of today's activities: you guys need new clothes."

"WHAT! No way!" Yelled Naruto.

"W-Why Genma-sensei?" Hinata asked sounding disappointed. She really liked these clothes.

Shino's eyebrows even twitched.

"Shino is the only one on your team that has a suitable outfit, but even he could do better. Hinata, you need clothing that would allow you more free movement. Naruto…Do I even need to explain? If those flashy clothes could talk they would be screaming 'Here I Am! Kill Me!'. I won't let any of my students walk around like that. Your clothes should help you blend into your environment, so around Konoha darker colours and greens would be most suited. They should also allow you completely free movement. Hinata, that sweater does allow a lot of movement but not enough. This is something very important for you, considering your best skills right know are based on taijutsu. Buy something that would be more appropriate. The same goes for you Naruto. Besides I don't want you guys to look like academy students. You're a shinobi now, so dress like one. Shino, the only thing I would like you to do, is wear darker clothing."

Shino and Hinata nodded, but Naruto was still complaining.

"I don't care! Why do I need to 'blend into my environment'? If someone sees me, I'll just kick their ass! Besides, I don't see how Shino's clothes allow any free movement at all."

"Naruto, shinobi don't just 'kick their ass', Ninja are supposed to be stealthy and hard to spot. On several of your missions in the future you might be gathering data or you maybe even have to assassinate a person several years from now. On those missions you will be forced to remain unseen. Being spotted on such a mission would mean ruining the entire mission, plus you would be putting yourself, and more importantly, your team mates in danger. Do you want to be the one responsible for getting your entire team killed, just because you want to wear flashy clothes?"

Huffing childishly but conceding at the same time, Naruto sat back down on the bench he was currently standing on.

"Also I know Shino wears those clothes to get full use out of his family's skills. In his case his bloodline abilities are more important."

Genma watched Naruto. The boy tried to hide it, but Genma saw that his words had a deep impact on him. This happened quite often when kids came from families with no ninja as a parent. They imagined the life of a ninja as always doing 'cool stuff', fighting bandits and the like. For these kids, the confrontation with reality was often quite hard. Many of them never even considered that their job could involve killing another person. Naruto seemed to handle it without to much trouble, as far as he could see.

_One hour later:_

Naruto, Hinata and Genma emerged from one of the better shinobi supply shops in Konoha, where they met up with Shino, who had gone home to put on one of his other outfits. He now wore a dark-grey, nearly black coat, instead of his light grey one and pants in the same color. Naruto wore a black long-sleeved stretchy shirt (like Lee's outfit, but just a shirt) with a black mask attached to it for his lower face (like Kakashi's). Next a simple dark grey cotton sleeveless vest and dark grey pants. Naruto insisted that the pockets of the vest and pants had orange lining though. He also wore his forehead protector as a belt now. The metal plate was put on a black piece of cloth, instead of a blue one. Hinata wore a black and grey fishnet shirt (also with a fishnet pattern mask) and a similar vest like Naruto's on top of it. She also wore simple dark grey pants. The lining of her pockets was plain white though. She wore her forehead protector the same way as Naruto did.

When they were picking out clothes, Naruto had been complaining a lot, although less than he would usually have. It was probably just force of habit.

_-Small Flashback-_

When Genma told them to buy the shirts with the masks, Naruto had started complaining about it as well.

"Since the mask covers your mouth and nose, it makes it easier to hide emotions and intimidate your opponents. It's also used to hide scars or in your case those whisker marks."

When Naruto thought about it, it made a lot of sense, and now maybe some of the villagers wouldn't recognize him. Plus, it made him look pretty damn cool. Hinata was less pleased, since she had nothing to hide but agreed with her sensei's decision anyway. Genma spotted that something was bothering her though.

"Hinata, you need to wear one as well because Naruto is wearing one. A skilled opponent will always study his targets before moving in. If an enemy is hiding something, it makes us instinctively more wary of this person, so you would automatically be looked at as the weakest of the team because your two team mates hide their faces. This would make you the prime target should an enemy try to surprise us."

After that, they both agreed that on missions and during training they would wear their masks. Naruto added silently, more to himself, that he would wear the mask most of the time he was in public as well.

Genma had also bought the three of them each, black fingerless gloves with a small metal plate on the back of the hand (again, like Kakashi's) as a sort of graduation present.

_-End Flashback-_

The rest of the afternoon was spent going over each one of their techniques and skills. Genma then gave them advice on how they could use their jutsu with maximum effect and how to further increase their skills. Next he taught them about techniques that could complement the jutsu they knew very well. Before the sun set, they spent about an hour practicing the tree walking exercise for the first time to train their chakra control. Shino was the only one who had made significant progress by being able to run up the tree about 15 feet high. Hinata and Naruto only reached little over 9 feet.

After their training, Genma told them to meet him at the bench in the park at 9 AM the next morning. After that they all went their own way. Shino and Hinata returned home, and judging from Naruto's cries of "Ramen! Ramen!" he would be heading towards Ichiraku's. Genma just sat down in the middle of the clearing where they had been training. He went over what he had learned about the kids today. Shino was at the moment the most skilled one of the team. He seemed to pretty good when it came to taijutsu, had a wide range of techniques to use with his bugs, and was great when it came to strategy, considering he was only genin level. He also seemed to listen very carefully to every word spoken to him, although it was hard to tell with those sunglasses. Naruto, while loud and obnoxious, seemed to be very eager to learn new jutsu. Combined with his incredible stamina this was probably one of his major strengths. His chakra control sucked though and his attention wandered quickly when he started going into more theoretical matters. Hinata was probably the weakest of their team right now. While she controlled the byakugan decently, and her taijutsu moves seemed nearly flawless, she didn't have the advanced chakra control required to make her moves effective. Also her speed, reflexes and stamina would need to be worked on.

But right now the thing he found most important was their teamwork. Shino only seemed to speak when necessary, Hinata was to shy to voice her own opinions, and Naruto seemed to talk all the time without ever saying something useful, often annoying his team mates. He figured he would first of all encourage them to spend more time as a team outside missions and training so they would each pick up some of each others habits and become close friends. During training and missions he would try to make Hinata speak her mind by asking for her opinions, try his very best to engage Shino into small talk about subjects that had nothing to do with their current activities, and to find a way to keep Naruto quiet. Telling him to shut up every time he got too loud and annoying probably wouldn't work. He figured Naruto was perhaps unconsciously just trying to get some attention, as he knew the boy had already lived alone for the bigger part of his young life.

For the next hour, Genma kept thinking of idea's on how he would approach each of his students in their teaching. He figured he could try keeping Naruto concentrated with the promise of some new jutsu. For Hinata's training, he was going to make sure she trained and sparred often enough with Naruto. Maybe it would loosen her up a bit and work on her stamina. Shino's case would need many more hours of thinking, but Genma called it quits. It was time he got something to eat and went home. It was already past 11:30PM.

_Meanwhile at Naruto's apartment_

As Naruto closed the door, he pulled down his mask and took of his vest. The smile he normally wore in public had slipped and a deep thoughtful look on his face stared back at him trough the mirror beside the door. His sensei's words had made him rethink his view of a shinobi.

'Will I really have to kill? Assassinate even? Had the old man Hokage killed and assassinated? Of course he had, he was supposed to be the strongest shinobi in the entire village, so did that mean that the friendly and kind old man had killed dozens of people in cold blood?'

Naruto had also noted that the people on the streets no longer looked at him with those hateful eyes. This was probably only because they didn't recognize him, but that didn't matter to him. Several people even greeted him. People that he knew, that had yelled various obscenities at him over the past years.

Several minutes later, tired and confused, Naruto crawled into his bed, still pondering Genma's words.

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So what did you think of the first chapter? Like it? Hate it? Was it awesome or should I never touch a keyboard again:-D Read and review please! No flaming or insults, but criticism is much appreciated. 

All hail my new beta reader ZeroArk!


	2. Training and Missions

**Title:** True Shinobi

**Chapter Title: **Training and Missions

**Author:** Syfes

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Naruto got up at 8AM that morning and immediately checked his alarm clock to verify this. Thankfully his clock did agree with him this time and Naruto got out of bed and headed into the bathroom to freshen up. Ten minutes later, Naruto was admiring himself in his new clothes in front of the mirror. He would never admit this to his sensei, but he looked so damn cool in these clothes. Moving towards the kitchen to prepare a cup of ramen, Naruto's thoughts again wandered to his sensei's words. He had gone to sleep last night, with the final thought being that whatever his career as a ninja might have in store for, he wouldn't have to worry about that just yet. Still a small voice in the back of his mind told him he might just be mistaken. Shedding his mind of these thoughts, Naruto threw the now empty cup in the trashcan, and left his apartment heading for the park, where they were supposed to meet. Before leaving the building though, Naruto pulled his mask over his face. 

_Meanwhile at the Hyuuga compound:_

Hinata had just finished breakfast, and was about to head to her team's meeting spot. Just like Naruto, she had also been pondering what her sensei had told the boy. Unlike him though, she knew that her job as a ninja, would require her to do less … tasteful things, like injuring or even killing another person. Her only question to herself was if she would ever be capable of doing something like that. She couldn't even bring herself to harm her own sister in any way during their sparring sessions, thus effectively losing each one of them. It wasn't like she didn't want to win…or maybe in a way she did. She was anxious to prove herself to others and earn their recognition, but she didn't want to be recognized as a heartless person either. Her dream of becoming a medic nin in a hospital was unacceptable to her father. Ridding herself of these depressing thoughts, she left the compound to join her team.

_Several minutes later at the bench in the park:_

Hinata arrived around 8:50AM to find Naruto sitting on a tree branch near their meeting place.

"G-Good morning, Naruto-kun."

"Huh? Oh, good morning Hinata!"

Naruto jumped of the tree branch and joined her on the bench. Only seconds later, they saw Shino coming their way.

"Hey Shino! Over here!" Naruto yelled.

Shino never acknowledged Naruto's call and just continued walking towards them.

"G-Good morning Shino."

"Good morning." He replied.

Naruto was about to yell 'It talks!', but at the last moment restrained himself. He was pretty sure Shino wasn't going to appreciate that, and he was very well aware that he would be working together with him for quite a while.

Unknown to them, Genma was observing his team from a distance. He noticed Shino seemed a little more talkative, but that was hard to tell as he would have to await what happened during the rest of the day. Genma waited a little longer, watching Naruto coax his team into talking, but Hinata was just to shy to talk to him, and Shino seemed to ignore him. Genma decided to leave his hiding spot and join his team.

"Good morning team!" He greeted them.

"Good morning sensei" They said in unison.

It still felt a bit weird to Genma to be called sensei. He had only been promoted to jounin several months before and was quite surprised when the Hokage requested him mere weeks ago to train a genin team.

"Well team. We've got a lot of work to do today. Tomorrow, we'll already be taking our first D-rank mission after all." He wisely didn't mention that the mission only involve grocery shopping. His words did have the desired effect though, because all three seemed to be paying a lot more attention. Maybe he could use this greatly to his advantage today.

"We will be going over strategy today, because strategic knowledge will be required for the mission tomorrow." Well, they did have to find their way trough the shops after all, didn't they?

"Later we will be repeating the tree walking exercise and if there's still time left, I'll start teaching each of you a technique that will complement your strengths." As he watched his team's reaction, he was greatly satisfied. Yup, he could definitely use this to his advantage.

The morning went perfectly. He explained strategies with the use of several real life examples, while his three subordinates listen with rapt attention, even Naruto, with the promise of a mission and a jutsu hanging over his head. At noon, Genma decided he would take his team out for lunch. He chose a small and cheap restaurant that served healthy snacks and such.

"Do they server ramen here?"

"Nope." Genma responded while checking today's menu.

"What? But I wanted ramen for lunch!"

"Naruto, didn't you eat ramen last night?"

"Yeah, so?"

"When was the last time you ate something else than ramen?"

"Uhm, about a week ago."

Genma sweat dropped.

"Then what did you eat for breakfast?"

"Ramen, so what?"

'Damn,' Genma thought, 'this is just plain wrong. No wonder the kid isn't as tall as his classmates.'

"Naruto, you should really eat some more healthy food. Ramen may taste good, but it contains a lot of fat and can barely be called nutritional."

"Who cares? Ramen is still the best food in the world!"

"So you want to keep living life as a midget?" Genma realized this was way below the belt, but he really needed to get his point across. No sense in arguing for hours.

"I'm not a midget!"

"Yes you are, and from now on I want you to start eating more healthy food, with vegetables and meat."

"And what if I don't?"

"Then you won't learn any cool jutsu I guess."

That shut him up.

After that the whole team ordered their food. Genma convinced Naruto to order a caesar salad and the rest of the team followed his example. In the end Naruto even asked for seconds and thirds.

For the afternoon, they returned to the training area they used yesterday and continued the tree walking exercise for several hours. Barely an hour into the training, Shino reached the top of the tree at 70 feet.

"Well done Shino." Genma called out to him, smirking. "Now try doing that without using your bugs to help."

Shino at least seemed to have the decency to look ashamed and continued the exercise without using bugs. This time it took Shino two more hours to reach the top of the tree. By that time, Naruto had seemed to hit a barrier at about 40 feet while Hinata had reached about 50. This seemed to annoy Naruto a bit… no scratch that. It annoyed him a lot.

"Sensei, why can't I get any higher?" Naruto yelled frustrated.

"You need to calm down and focus. Do you remember what I told you about moulding and controlling chakra yesterday?"

"Uhm…chakra is a mix of spiritual and physical energy that can be controlled by the focus of body and mind." Genma was surprised he actually remembered.

"So what does that tell you?"

"That I have to focus more?"

"Not quite. It means that controlling chakra first of all requires you to relax your body and mind and concentrate on what you want your chakra to do, that's the spiritual part. Then while still concentrating, you focus the physical energy with your mind and/or focus it through hand seals, hence creating chakra. Better concentration and focus, results in better control of your chakra."

"So what do I do now then?"

"Just rest for a few minutes and try to figure out what you did wrong or what you can do better. Then try again."

Barely 20 minutes later, Naruto was declaring his superiority to the rest of the world from the top of the tree. 30 minutes after Naruto, Hinata also reached the top of her tree.

It was just past 5PM right now. While his students had been practicing the tree walking exercise, Genma had decided what jutsu he would teach them. He would try to teach one to each of them today or at least get them started. The jutsu were very basic ones that only required a single hand seal and were most of the time quite useless, but they would form a base that they could progress from. He had chosen a very simple earth technique for Shino. By focussing chakra trough the ground, the technique would enable him to restrain or slow down a person for a short while, by softening the ground below his opponent. Useless against another experienced genin even, but a base to start from nevertheless. He also figured that earth jutsu would complement his bug techniques better instead of other elements. Hinata would be learning how to use fire techniques. Fire techniques were often great in combination with speedy moves, so this would combine greatly with her taijutsu skills. Her first jutsu would allow her to breathe out a small stream of fire, only useful for starting a campfire or similar. Naruto would be learning water jutsu. Water jutsu often required large amounts of chakra and stamina, so this would work great for Naruto. His first technique was the most useless right now, but it was actually the first step to the 'kirigakure no jutsu' or the hidden mist technique. Genma had learned the technique from a friend who had lived in the hidden mist village for several years. It had no application whatsoever, because all it did was draw water from nearby sources, like a river or the ground into the atmosphere. The only thing this would result in was getting himself completely soaked in the humid air surrounding him. At least for now, because the 'kirigakure no jutsu' could be a very useful skill in a reconnaissance mission if used correctly.

Genma noticed that apart from Shino, his team looked quite exhausted. He allowed the two other members to take some rest, while he started teaching Shino his first earth jutsu. First he explained the basics of earth jutsu, like how to channel chakra through the ground. He then proceeded with explaining the technique itself. After about 10 minutes even, Shino had already made promising progress with it, but that only meant he was barely able to soften the ground below Genma. His sensei explained that he would have to concentrate more on extracting the harder minerals from the ground and push those aside. He then left Shino to his own devices to join Naruto and Hinata. His two other students had been resting against a tree, seemingly out for the count. Genma was glad to see them quietly talking to each other. Hinata seemed to loosen up a little bit and Naruto had seemed to calm down a bit, which could just be blamed to exhaustion too though. He considered it good progress anyway.

"Oi! Sensei, when are you going to teach us those jutsu?" Naruto yelled.

Well, he shouldn't expect too much change either it seemed.

"Right now Naruto, so get over here."

Naruto ran over to him with a speed he would have believed the genin incapable of before, especially after hours of tree walking. They both soaked up the techniques like sponges and were surprisingly fast learners. Hinata did almost forget to take of her mask, nearly burning a hole trough it. Several hours later, Genma gathered the team once more. The only one who still looked decent was Hinata because Shino had dirt all over him and Naruto was sopping wet, though he didn't seem to care.

"Ok team, we really made good progress today. I'm really proud of you."

"Thanks sensei!"

"Now, you guys won't be seeing me before noon tomorrow. I have some stuff I need to take care of, but I want you to gather at the Hokage tower at 8AM tomorrow to receive and execute your first mission! When you're done, meet me at the training field." That way he wouldn't have to face Naruto's wrath early in the morning. After saying their goodbye's the team parted ways for that night.

_The next day:_

"I'M GOING TO KILL THAT BASTARD!" Naruto yelled, swinging his shopping bags like they were swords. He had been in a foul mood since that morning. They had spent three hours already, shopping for 6 different clients. They quickly delivered the goods to the client before heading back to the Hokage tower to receive their pay.

Naruto still kept ranting on the way to the training area, where they met Genma.

"So guys, how was your mission?"

Genma's question was answered by a kunai thrown at his face. He easily stopped it, mere millimetres from the tip of his nose.

"My, my Naruto. Is that a challenge?" Genma asked mockingly.

Naruto started a mad dash towards his teacher but before he could even take two steps, he found himself pinned to the floor, arm bend painfully behind his back and his own kunai held at his throat.

"Do you yield?"

"NEVER!"

Genma sighed. 'Pride….'

"Naruto, if I would've been an enemy, I would have slit your throat and you'd be dead right now."

"Then what am I supposed to do, Mr All-knowing?

"A ninja has priorities. His first priority is his own life and those of his team mates. Second is his mission. Pride isn't on that list. You should've given up when I gave you the chance."

"Meh! Even if I would have, that wouldn't mean that the enemy would've let me live." Naruto responded.

"So are you saying your way would've given you a better chance at survival?"

"…"

"So, do you yield?"

"…Yes." Naruto answered reluctantly.

Genma got up and released the boy from his grip.

"Actually, you made another big mistake. Remember those two standing behind you? You're a member of a team, so first of all you shouldn't have acted on your own. If something like this would've happened on a mission, your two other team mates would be powerless because of your foolish actions."

"Point taken," Naruto said, "but you are not my enemy."

"Then why did you throw a kunai at me?"

"Because I felt like it! You told us yesterday we had to prepare ourselves really well for our first mission and then we get stuck grocery shopping! What kind of a mission is that?"

"Well what did you expect? That you would go out and fight bandits or save some damsel in distress?"

"Why not?"

"Because you guys will have to prove yourselves before you go on more important missions. For at least another month, you won't be doing anything above D-rank. Those are missions inside the village that require little or no experience. That's the way the system works, get used to it. Now lets drop the matter for a second, so we can get started on your training."

Their training started with an hour and a half of strategic lessons, followed by 30 minutes of tree walking as to further train their control and stamina. Genma then continued their jutsu training. Shino still had to work on his first doton jutsu but Hinata and Naruto had successfully mastered their techniques the day before. He would be teaching Hinata a slightly stronger version of the same technique today. Naruto would continue learning the hidden mist technique. This part was actually the hardest of the whole technique. Naruto would have to learn how to increase the number of water molecules with chakra. This was a required for many water jutsu and could also significantly strengthen others. For this exercise, he would try to increase the amount of water in a bucket. It would most likely take Naruto several days to even double the amount of water. A master of water jutsu would be able to fill a bucket with just a few drops of water but for Naruto that would still take many years of training. For the kirigakure no jutsu, he would at least have to be able triple the amount of water in the bucket.

Several hours later, they all went home. Shino and Hinata had been able to finish their techniques, while Naruto had made a little progress. Genma told him that once he was able to double the amount, it would become a lot easier.

The next six weeks they followed a similar pattern of training and simple D-rank missions. Naruto had been able to multiply the water by four times after one week of practice. Right now he had to try and combine his two first techniques by multiplying the water particles in the air to create mist. Mostly because of the blonde's whining, he had also been taught a few more offensive techniques like the suiton teppoudama and was currently trying to perform the most basic suiton suijinheki. Hinata had also become a lot stronger in a short amount of time. Because of the chakra control training, her jyuuken moves had become about three times more effective. She had also been able to master several of the more basic katon techniques like the katon housenka no jutsu and was still trying to perfect katon goukakyuu no jutsu, but she didn't yet seem to have the larger amounts of chakra needed to perform this technique perfectly. Shino had made good progress as well with his earth jutsu. He had even adapted several of his jutsu, so that they could be combined with his bug techniques. Trough the combination of bugs and doton shinjuu zanshu no jutsu, he could make his bugs appear out of the ground wherever he wanted within a radius of 100 feet around him. The entire team had also become a lot stronger strategically. They could work a lot better as a team right now and Genma also noticed that almost every move seemed to be thought out carefully. They still needed a lot of training though. Also, Shino had loosened up a bit, Hinata was slowly getting more confident in her skills and less shy, and Naruto had cooled down a bit. These days, the team would often hang out together as well during their free time.

Tomorrow they would have their first C-Rank mission. They didn't know this yet, but that mission would change all the members of team 8, and each one of them would remember the horrors they experienced on this mission vividly for the rest of their lives.

* * *

AN: So did you like it? Hate it? Review please! 

I didn't list the translations for the techniques, as they are used in the animé / manga. If you want translations, visit narutofan . com and go to the "Naruto Technique List". You'll find everything you need to know there.

Also Devinj2000 mentioned in a review it would be cool to have some pics of the new team. I'm just a novice when it comes to drawing manga though. If anyone would like to draw some pics of them, it would be much appreciated.

The next chapter will take a bit of time since a lot will happen and its going to be significantly longer.


	3. Change

**Title:** True Shinobi

**Chapter Title: **Change

**Author:** Syfes

* * *

Naruto was wide awake early that morning. Today was the day that his team would be leaving on their first C-rank mission. Genma hadn't told them the details yet, but from what he had understood the Hokage was impressed with their progress. Naruto was checking his weapons and gear while munching on a carrot. Over the last few weeks he had slowly changed his diet. Right now he would only eat ramen once every other day. To say that the old man at Ichiraku's wasn't happy with this, would be an understatement. As Naruto checked the clock, he saw that he had at least another 20 minutes before Shino would be arriving at his doorstep. Two weeks ago they had decided that Shino would walk by Naruto's first and then the two would go pick up Hinata at the Hyuuga compound, before meeting with their jounin sensei. 

Ten minutes later someone knocked on the door. Naruto opened it to find Shino with backpack and gear ready.

"Hey Shino, you're early."

"Yes, I guess I am." Shino replied in his usual emotionless voice.

Since the team spent so much time together, Shino had loosened up a bit. He still wasn't very talkative but at least there was some progress. Mostly he would talk to Genma, who seemed to engage Shino in as much conversations as possible.

"I am quite excited. A C-rank mission given to a genin team, only mere weeks old, is quite exceptional."

Naruto was startled by his companion's words. This was the first time he ever heard Shino admit that he was excited or feeling any other emotion for that matter.

"Yes…Yes I guess you're right." Naruto answered.

Five minutes later he was ready to go as well and they left his apartment. Another three minutes later, they had picked up Hinata and were heading for the south gate, where they would wait for their sensei. Shino and Naruto noticed that Hinata was very quiet. Even more so than when they started training together.

"What's the matter Hinata?" Shino asked.

"Yeah, you're looking so … down today." Naruto added.

"I-Its nothing…"

"Come on Hinata. You can tell us. We're your team mates!"

"Its just that … well … I don't know if I'm strong enough to do this. What if I mess up? What if …"

"Nah, you won't mess up! You've become a lot stronger now."

"Naruto is correct." Shino added.

"But I couldn't even perform the Goukakyuu no Jutsu right!" Hinata choked out.

"That is perfectly understandable Hinata. It is a chuunin level jutsu after all."

"But…"

"Don't worry Hinata." Naruto interrupted, "You're going to be fine."

Hinata stopped arguing with them about it after that and fell silent as they kept walking. She loosened up slightly, but underneath, she knew and they knew that she was still worried.

Meanwhile Genma had made a quick stop here at Konoha's Public Library to pick up some jutsu scrolls from the chuunin and jounin restricted section. He himself had never been that good at ninjutsu and had always focused more on weapon techniques. He still wanted to keep teaching his students more new techniques though. Doton jutsu in particular had never been his forte. Also he couldn't let his students collect jutsu scrolls themselves. Genin only had access to the public part of the library which contained no jutsu at all as to make sure no-one besides the registered shinobi of Konoha would be able to learn ninjutsu techniques. Their mission would take about two weeks and most of it would be spent in the dry land of the Wind Country. As such Naruto and Shino wouldn't be able to train much of their jutsu as almost every one of Naruto's jutsu required water from the surrounding area and most of Shino's techniques couldn't be used in the loose sands that they would be crossing. Therefore he needed to find some techniques for them that they could train in those environments. Genma had come across a jutsu quite quickly that sounded perfect for Naruto. Genma hadn't even heard of it before, but even the title sounded promising. It was called the Shuriken Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu. He skimmed the scroll quickly and found that it only required good knowledge of the Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu. As Naruto had mastered that one almost perfectly, he decided to take this scroll for him. As for Shino, it was quite a bit more difficult. He had no knowledge about bug jutsu whatsoever and Doton jutsu that didn't involve manipulating the ground of the surrounding area were much too advanced for him. After much thinking, Genma decided that with the boy's good chakra control, he could teach him some basic genjutsu techniques so there would be no need to pick up scrolls for the Aburame kid. He checked out the single scroll and headed for the south gate.

As he approached the gate he saw his students waiting in anticipation. Naruto had eagerness written all over his face and Hinata seemed a bit excited about the whole mission as well. Shino just stood there, but Genma figured he was excited as well.

"Good morning team!"

"Good morning sensei." They answered.

"Sit down for a moment so I can explain the mission details."

They moved to a nearby bench and sat down.

"Our task is a simple delivery mission. We have to pick up a parcel near the border of the Fire Country and the Grass Country. Then we will be delivering that parcel to Shingetsu village in the Wind Country. The mission's duration should be around two weeks. Also the parcel's contents are unknown and are supposed to remain secret, so make sure you handle it with care, alright?"

"Right!" The three students chorused in unison although Hinata's voice was definitely more subdued than the two boys'.

"Very well. Then we'll be leaving now."

After quite a few hours of endless questions from the blonde boy, Genma finally told him to practice the jutsu as they walked. The two other genin breathed a sigh of relief. Even Hinata, who enjoyed Naruto's happiness immensely, needed him to shut up, for at least a little while. Naruto concentrated on his jutsu practice, but the results were a little discouraging.

"Not like that Naruto. You're making vapour again. In order to create mist you need to have a lot more and smaller water particles. Remember to concentrate more before trying."

Naruto was practicing the Kirigakure no Jutsu, since they were still travelling trough the fire country and there was more than enough water in the air here to keep practicing while walking. Genma also found that the Hidden Mist technique would be more useful to him than the Shuriken Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu for now, so he could learn that one later. Their sensei had also been explaining the very basics of healing jutsu to Hinata. He had been planning for a while to teach her those, but never got around to it. As he didn't want her to leave a trail or to waste her chakra by practicing fire jutsu, it was the perfect time to teach her some of those basics. These techniques would only allow her to stop the bleeding of small cuts and other small wounds but like with everything else they were a starting point.

Two days later the team had almost reached the border with the Grass Country. Tomorrow they would be taking over the parcel from a team of the Hidden Rain Village. They made camp and were preparing to settle down for a rest. At the moment everyone was checking their equipment once again. Genma told them that although Konoha had a stable alliance with the Hidden Rain, a shinobi should always, in every circumstances, be prepared. Those who made the mistake of trusting other people blindly often died in the most stupid ways possible.

After that the team decided to freshen themselves up at a nearby river. As Hinata was washing herself in the clear water, she heard a cry coming upstream. As she peeked around the bushes that were blocking her from view she nearly fainted. In the middle of the river she saw her Naruto-kun standing nearly naked, wearing nothing except a pair of green boxers. Hinata averted her eyes as she tasted the blood in her mouth that had erupted from her nose.

'OHMYGOD!' her mind screamed at her.

She couldn't help but peek again as she wiped the blood from her upper lip.

'I never knew Naruto-kun was THAT good looking…'

Apparently Naruto's new 'diet' had done wonders because he now had nicely formed muscles on his arms and torso. He had a body any thirteen year old boy would be extremely proud of.

Fifteen minutes later, she tried to knock the blush off her face as she walked back to join the rest of her team. As she saw Naruto without his vest on she couldn't stop the blood rushing to her face. Another small nosebleed formed that she quickly hid with a paper tissue.

Genma noticed this and got a pretty good idea of what had happened. He would have been stupid if he hadn't noticed the girl's infatuation with the boy over the last month and a half. Genma didn't really know how to handle this situation however. Relations within teams were usually not condoned, or at least they were really not recommended, however Genma was worried that Hinata's feelings and shyness would prevent their teamwork from developing in the future if she didn't admit her feelings towards the boy. He also knew Naruto had no clue whatsoever about her feelings for him. The big question was whether he should interfere in this situation in some way. Maybe he could try to push them away from each other, but to do that in a way that it wouldn't damage their teamwork was nearly impossible. On the other hand he could also push them a bit closer towards each other so Hinata might get more comfortable around the boy. Genma finally opted to stay out of the whole mess, at least for now. He was never good at all that 'relations' stuff anyway.

The next morning they broke up camp early before heading towards the border only a few miles further. There they met the team from the Hidden Rain. The Rain team appeared to be a young genin team as well. Every member of Team 8 was alert and the other team seemed on their toes as well. They received the parcel without any problems though.

"I'd like to give you guys a little warning." The jounin leader on the other team said. "There have been reports of highly skilled bandits near Shingetsu village. According to the information we got, they reside in a forest just east of the village."

The Rain team then left without saying another word, advice or not. Genma watched his team's reactions to the news. He had already been given this information and had already planned a route that would lead them far around the forest. Shino seemed indifferent, Naruto determined and Hinata seemed a bit scared but at the same time, there was a look of determination hiddenin her pale eyes.

"Don't worry guys. I already knew about this and we will be avoiding that forest." he told them.

"Why?" Naruto asked. "Shouldn't we do something about it?"

"Naruto," Genma sighed, "remember the priorities of a shinobi?"

"Yeah! First the lives of yourself and your team mates! Second…"

"The Mission. We can't let anything endanger our mission." Genma finished for him. "Therefore we will be avoiding those bandits and deliver the parcel as quickly as possible."

After that, the team turned towards Shingetsu village. Several days passed as they travelled trough the Fire Country. During these few days Naruto had almost been able to master the lowest level of the Hidden Mist Technique and Hinata had made some progress on her Healing techniques. She was now able to close small cuts and heal minor bruises. As they approached the border with the Wind Country, Naruto started to have difficulties with his Kirigakure no Jutsu.

"Sensei! Why isn't this working anymore!" Naruto yelled frustrated.

"The air is getting dryer. Soon it will be impossible for you to work that technique. In these dry environments it takes a water specialist to perform that jutsu correctly. I knew this would happen, so I picked up a technique from the Konoha Library. It comes from the restricted jounin section, so handle it with care."

"Cool! What kind of a jutsu is it sensei?" Naruto said, obviously very excited.

"Find out for yourself." Genma answered as he threw the scroll towards the boy. Naruto let out a shriek of happiness as he read the title of the scroll.

"Yatta! This sounds soooo cool, sensei! … So what does it do?"

"I don't know how to perform the technique myself but the basic idea is that you create Shadow Clones of small weapons like shuriken or kunai."

"Awesome! Thanks Genma-sensei!" Naruto cried as he hugged the scroll tightly to his chest. Genma laughed out loud at the boy's excitement.

"Shino, as we go further you won't be able to practice a lot of your techniques decently either because of all the sands we'll be crossing. That's why I'll teach you another technique as well. It's a simple genjutsu that is normally used to bend the light around small weapons to make them harder to see. It's not well known and I use it often in combination with my senbon, but I figure you will be able to combine it with your bugs as well."

"Thank you sensei."

"Can you teach me that jutsu as well, sensei?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"I'll make you a deal. If you can master that scroll before we get to Shingetsu village, I'll teach it to you as well." Genma answered amused.

"Don't worry! I'll have this technique mastered in three days!"

Genma found this very unlikely seeing as this jutsu was marked as an A-Rank ninjutsu. There was something that puzzled him though. The Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu was considered a kinjutsu that would only be taught to high ranked jounin of Konoha, but this one wasn't. It didn't make any sense at all.

_Three days later_

"Shuriken Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Genma watched dumbfounded as a dozen shuriken flew past him and embedded themselves in a lonely tree amidst the rocks. Seconds later they puffed away into smoke and only one remained.

"Yatta! See, I told you I could do it!"

Genma recovered from his shock quickly.

"Well done Naruto. Keep practicing that for now. I'll explain the Shuriken Hinome Sorasu no Jutsu (Shuriken Sunlight Bending Technique) to you this evening after we've set up camp. Then tomorrow you can start practicing it as you can't use it without sunlight."

"Yatta!"

Shingetsu village was only 10 miles away and Naruto was amazing Genma once more by shredding the few bushes they passed on their way with several nearly invisible Shuriken Kage-Bunshin. Genma was astounded by how Naruto seemed to soak these techniques up. The combo that the blonde had just created was one even he was jealous of.

Several hours later Genma had made arrangements at a local inn near the entrance to the village and was now leading his team trough the busy streets of Shingetsu village towards the local daimyo's mansion . Naruto and Hinata were admiring the houses, shops and other estates that just breathed wealth.

"Shingetsu village is a very wealthy village because of the hot springs." Genma informed them. "They are extremely rare in the dry landscapes of the Wind Country and these springs are rumoured to have strange healing powers, so this place attracts visitors from the whole country and well beyond it."

"Do they really have healing powers?" Naruto asked.

"Probably not. Most likely it's just a rumour that was started to make them even more popular."

As they approached the largest mansion yet, Genma held his team back for a second.

"Now I want you guys on your best behaviour. This daimyo is a new client, so we want to appear as good as possible so that he would hire more shinobi from Konoha in the future. Even if he insults you guys, I don't want you to react at all and remain professional."

This was mostly aimed at Naruto, but Genma said it as though he addressed the entire team as to not make it seem like he was once more pointing out the boy's flaws.

After they introduced themselves to the guards at the entrance they were led inside and brought to the daimyo's meeting room. The delivery went without problems and they were offered rooms at the mansion for the night. Genma politely declined the offer since they had already arranged other accommodations.

After that Genma offered to treat them a dinner for once in a nearby ramen stand. One hour and thirteen bowls for Naruto later, they returned to the inn and decided to spend the rest of the evening there.

At 2AM the whole team was awoken by an alarm horn. The sound seemed to come from the nearby entrance gate. Genma got up quickly and told his team to get out of bed and get ready for possible battle. Less then a minute later team 8 was rushing towards the town gates.

"What's happening?" Genma asked one of the guards.

"A large group is approaching the village from the east."

Genma jumped onto the wall that surrounded the village. His team swiftly followed.

"Hinata, can you use your byakugan to tell us how many are coming."

Hinata reacted quickly and activated her byakugan.

"There are about 40, all of them armed with various weapons."

"Are any of them wearing forehead protectors?"

Hinata searched for a few second.

"Yes, there are three of them as far as I can see…. They're from the Hidden Cloud!"

'Damn,' Genma thought, 'a three man team, so those guys are at least chuunin level and most likely one of them is a jounin as well.' He knew his team wasn't ready for this but they didn't have much of a choice. If cloud ninja attacked a village inside the Wind Country then this was a break of the peace treaties and would be considered an act of war. Fleeing from such a situation would be considered a serious crime even for a genin team because the Wind Country was their ally. As such, they weren't allowed to back out. Genma now had to think quickly since their forces would reach them in less than 3 minutes. Genma knew that he himself would barely stand a chance against an experienced jounin. So he needed a backup. He decided that Shino would assist him in fighting the jounin that would most likely be among them. He would leave the two chuunin to Naruto and Hinata. He knew they probably weren't ready for that, but if they could take out the jounin quickly enough they could join them before anything serious happened. His theory went pretty much to the dogs as the group approaching them separated. One was now heading for the north side of the village and one headed for the south.

"Hinata, how are those cloud shinobi grouped?"

"Two of them are leading the group to the south, one of them is leading the group to the north. Sensei…"

"Alright them. We will have to split up as well. Naruto and Hinata will head south while Shino and I will head north. We don't have any other choice. Naruto, Hinata, be careful. Those two are most likely chuunin."

"But…I don't get it sensei!" Naruto asked bewildered. "You're sending us towards the strongest side?"

"No. If my assumptions are correct, Shino and I will be facing a jounin. We should leave now, so be careful kids and don't get yourselves killed."

After that Genma and Shino left without another word. The remaining two stood there for a few seconds in silence before Naruto spoke.

"Come on Hinata. We have to get moving to."

"A-Alright."

Naruto and Hinata left for the southern side of the village, neither of them knowing what to expect.

"Shino, while I'm facing that jounin I want you to take care of those thugs. They shouldn't be to much of a difficulty for you. Also if you can I want you to try and weaken that jounin with your bugs while I have his attention, alright?"

"Yes, I think I can handle that." Shino replied.

"I want to be ask quick as possible so we can go and support Hinata and Naruto, but remember that right now our first priority is to protect the civilians. We have to believe in them until the situation is taken care of on this side."

"Yes… Sensei, the bugs tell me that the group attacking our side is spreading."

"Damn… We'll have to trust that the guards can protect the civilians from those other bandits while we handle that shinobi."

"They're crossing the walls. That jounin is northeast of our position accompanied by three others."

"Very well then. Lets go!"

They quickly approached the small group from behind. Genma drew a small Windmill Shuriken (like the one that Sasuke uses on the Wave-mission) from his belt and opened it with a flick of his wrist. He threw it with deadly accuracy towards the jounin's neck and right behind it he threw 6 senbon needles. Their skilled opponent was easily able to deflect the shuriken, though he was caught of guard by the senbon. He was only able to dodge three of them and the other three hit non-vital areas. While Genma kept the jounin busy with a barrage of kunai and shuriken, Shino had engaged the three others with basic taijutsu. They weren't skilled, so the boy had no problems keeping them busy, while he made small swarms of bugs approach the jounin trough the shadows. It was a slow and tedious process, because larger groups of insects would be immediately spotted by the enemy shinobi. Their strategy did seem to work though. As small amounts of bugs slowly flew towards their enemy, Genma was able to keep the jounin somewhat in the same place with his weapon techniques and some small jutsu like the Suiton Teppoudama. After a while though, their opponent was able to place small offensive attacks trough Genma's attacks that were slowly getting weaker. At the same time Shino's bugs had slowly started sucking on the man's chakra. Shino had also taken care of the bandits by now and was seemingly watching his sensei's battle from the sidelines. It was only several minutes later that the jounin noticed the bugs crawling over his body and further noticed that small swarms of bugs were still approaching him. He quickly figured out that the bugs came from the direction of the seemingly idle boy.

"You little runt!" The man exclaimed before flashing trough several hand seals, followed by a bolt of lightening. Shino couldn't dodge the fast manoeuvre and got hit in the chest. Genma had been able to use this moment of distraction to aim several senbon towards the jounin's arms, effectively paralyzing them. Genma then rushed in using taijutsu and two kunai held in each hand to finish off the enemy. In the end Genma broke the man's neck with a fast and hard kick to the side of his head. Not sparing the jounin a second thought, Genma rushed towards his unconscious student. His pulse was low, but his breathing compared to the beating he got seemed quite normal and a quick basic diagnostic jutsu revealed no internal damage and his condition was stable for now. Now Genma was facing another dilemma. It had been about fifteen minutes since they had separated. Hinata and Naruto would be engaged in combat with the two other shinobi. He knew he should go and help them but the problems on this side of the village were far from solved. The few guards that still remained were having lots of troubles keeping the others thugs away from residential area's. Several civilian corpses and bodies from enemies and allies already littered the ground. He figured it would take him another ten minutes to secure this side of the village. He wasn't sure his two other students could hold out until then.

Genma's thinking was interrupted when he sensed a strong chakra source. What frightened him was that he had sensed this very same chakra before as a kid thirteen years ago. This was the Kyuubi's chakra. Genma focused harder and found that while there was an extremely high amount of chakra, it seemed to be in control. 'Is that Naruto?' Genma thought amazed. 'Is he really in control of the Kyuubi's chakra?' Genma decided that Naruto could handle the situation for now, so he called one of the guards nearby to look after Shino, while he took care of those bandits.

At the same time Hinata was quickly loosing whatever confidence she had left. Only minutes into the fight, she and Naruto had gotten separated, leaving her to hold off what seemed to be the strongest of the two ninjas. She found herself slowly weakening as her Jyuuken moves and jutsu had drained a large portion of her chakra. She couldn't go on for that much longer. Suddenly she was knocked to the ground by a straight punch to the face, something she should have been able to block normally. The man held her down on the ground as he raises a small blade into the air, ready to slice her throat.

"I will be rewarded beyond imagination for capturing the Hyuuga's eyes." The man said with a maniacal grin plastered on his face. Hinata was shocked by those comments. Now she no longer had to fight just for herself, but for her clan as well. She was well aware of the fact that protecting the Byakugan came before protecting he own life.

As he slashed the blade down, Hinata summoned all of her remaining strength into one blow that she aimed straight at the man's heart. The knife fell down and the man's body slumped to the ground, clearly dead.

Meanwhile, Naruto had a hard time keeping his opponent busy with just simple, basic taijutsu, his Kage-Bunshin and the Suiton Teppoudama. His opponent seemed specialized in taijutsu and Naruto was loosing his battle bit by bit and his body was quickly being covered with bruises. Now and then he threw a worried glance towards the place were he had last seen Hinata and the other chuunin. There were no more signs of battle from that direction.

"What's the matter kid? Worried about your girlfriend?" His opponent taunted. "Saito will have killed the Hyuuga by now. He is a lot stronger than I am."

Naruto tried to keep up hope, but his confidence in his team mate was quickly vanishing.

"He's probably cutting her eyes out as we speak. It will make a great present for Raikage-sama."

"No! Hinata! You bastards!" Naruto cried as he felt a strong surge of chakra flowing through his body. His nails and canines grew as well, but Naruto paid no attention to these changes as his attention was completely focused on his opponent.

"I'll avenge her." Naruto stated with a chilling coldness before rushing towards his opponent with an inhuman speed. He just grabbed the chuunin's upper arm and threw him towards one of the houses like a rag doll. The man collapsed on impact with the wall and never moved again. He quickly sped off towards Hinata's last known position with a murderous look on his face. When he got there the look on his face as well as the changes to his body disappeared suddenly as he saw Hinata kneeling next to the dead body of her opponent, clearly in shock.

Only then the reality of the situation penetrated Naruto's thoughts. They had killed tonight and all around them dead bodies and blood had now changed the beautiful and busy village into a scene worthy of the worst nightmares possible. Naruto had a hard time trying not to cry as he stared into the wide open eyes of a dead girl that wouldn't have been any older than seven.

"Shinobi rule 25" He whispered to himself. "A shinobi must keep emotions on the inside, no matter what the situation. You must make the mission top priority and you have to posses a heart that never shows tears." Clinging desperately to the words of his sensei, he forced himself to look away from the girl and looked back at Hinata. She was in shock but in no immediate danger. Keeping a cool head, he jumped onto one of the higher rooftops to get a good look of the surrounding area. All the bandits on this side of the village had been eliminated by the local guards and several men who had armed themselves with simple tools and kitchen knives. From the north, he saw one figure quickly approaching over the rooftops. Naruto raised his kunai quickly, but lowered it again as he recognized his sensei.

"Naruto, are you alright?" His sensei asked when he arrived.

"I'm fine. I think Hinata…she's in shock."

"What happened to those chuunin?"

"I …I-I killed one of them. I think Hinata killed the other one. The guards and men were able to take care of the bandits."

Genma looked around him, with a look sadness in his eyes. The civilian death toll on this side of the village seemed a lot higher than on the north side, largely due to the much more densely populated area here.

"You've done well Naruto. It's over now. Let's get Hinata and Shino to the Hospital. Shinobi from the Hidden Sand should be arriving soon.

Early the next morning, Naruto and Genma had only needed treatment for minor injuries but Hinata had only just come out of her shock. Genma and Naruto sat with her in the room, anxiously awaiting news about Shino's condition. When they arrived with him at the hospital several hours ago his pulse had been slowly dropping. Hinata was silently crying in her hospital bed, facing away from them.

"Naruto," Genma whispered to his student, "why don't you go comfort her a little bit?"

"Why?…I mean, why don't you go? You're our sensei." Naruto whispered back, a bit surprised.

"I think she would appreciate your comfort more than mine right now."

Naruto didn't understand but followed his sensei's advice anyway. He sat down on the bed besides her and quietly spoke to the girl.

"Hey… Hinata… It's all right. You did what you had to do."

"But I killed him. I could've knocked him out, but I KILLED HIM!"

"Nah, you don't now what would've happened if you hadn't. You only did what you thought was right and there's nothing wrong with that."

Naruto was pretty much repeating what Genma had told him. They had had a similar conversation a few hours before. The blonde still hadn't really come to terms with all of it as well, but his sensei showed him that you have to see everything in comparison. If Naruto wouldn't have killed that man, he might have killed Naruto and many others as well.

Naruto patted her on the back before he was suddenly caught off guard by Hinata's arms around his waist. Naruto hadn't been in this situation ever before, but he awkwardly moved his arms around her shoulder and rubbed her back.

"But…"

"Hinata," Genma interrupted, "this attack was an act of war and we were in no position to take prisoners. Therefore we had to kill them. It … It's standard protocol."

Hinata nodded lightly to show that she heard and understood him, but she kept her arms tightly around Naruto, who was slowly getting a bit more comfortable with the whole situation. All three of them looked up however when they heard a knock at the door.

"Shiranui Genma, Aburame Shino's teacher?"

"That's me." Genma answered.

"The kid's condition is stable, but we will not able to treat him further here. We are unfamiliar with his internal anatomical features, probably due to his bloodline ability. Are you capable of transporting him to Konoha yourselves?"

"Yes we are, but we have to remain here for another day to assist the Sand's investigation. We can leave early tomorrow morning."

The team spent the rest of that morning answering questions of the ANBU teams sent by the sand. Afterwards Naruto and Hinata returned to the inn to get a bit of sleep and Genma assisted with the cleanup of the village.

Team 8 had left early the next morning, Hinata and Naruto carrying the still unconscious Shino in between them on a stretcher and Genma walked besides them. Since they cut a straight line across the country and didn't make any detours, the journey home took practically no time at all. Two days later they arrived in Konoha and immediately took Shino to the hospital. After that, Genma told them to go home and take a few days off. Hinata and Naruto walked home, tired from the long journey and their mission. Genma went to report to the Hokage.

* * *

"Genma-san, I've heard of what happened. I'm pleased that your team got back safely." 

"Thank you Hokage-sama."

Genma then continued by informing the old man of everything that happened, starting with their leave from Konoha and the C-Rank mission. Then he continued with an in depth report of that awful night.

"You did what you had to. You and your team will be receiving the pay of one C-Rank and one A-Rank mission and both missions will be marked successful for you, Hinata-san and Naruto-san. For Shino, the A-Rank will be marked successful as well, but with serious injury."

"A-rank? But Hokage-sama…"

"Genma-san, you should now that any war related activities translate to an A-Rank or an S-Rank mission."

"Right. Thank you Hokage-sama."

"Also Team 8 won't receive any more missions for the next two weeks so that your students can recover from their ordeal. I would like a report from your students before they resume missions though."

"Very well Hokage-sama."

After that Genma left and headed for a nearby bar. He could really use a drink right now.

"Hey Genma!"

Genma turned around and saw Asuma coming up behind him.

"Hey Asuma, how are you?"

"I'm fine. How did your mission go? Did the kids behave?"

"Oh yeah…They behaved. The mission was a success but we ran into some trouble."

"Trouble?"

"Cloud shinobi attacked the village where we had delivered the parcel."

"What! Are you serious?"

"Dead serious. Shino is still in the hospital. His condition is stable though. He should be up within a week. In a few weeks he should be ready for training again."

"What happened?"

"We were both facing a jounin from the cloud. He got hit by a bolt of lightening straight in the chest."

"Damn….What about the other two?"

"They faced two chuunin level shinobi on their own. They each killed one. Hinata was in shock. There were more then 50 civilian casualties."

Asuma whistled. "Damn…You need a drink right?"

"Yeah?"

"Let me buy you one."

"Sure."

* * *

AN: Did you like it? Hate it? Review please! 

I've created a forum. If you have any questions that could be discussed, please post them there. You can find the link in my profile (my forums).

I now have a new beta reader: Ryuu no Taiyo, who did an amazing job on this chapter I think.

Reviewers asked me to give a full list of the techniques used, so I've added that below.

And I've also made a small change in the first chapter. I said that teams would be evaluated after 6 months, it's supposed to be 3 (It's happens in the next chapter).

**THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE AWESOME …… TRUE SHINOBI: JUTSU LIST! **

Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu -Shadow Clone Technique

- A Kinjutsu (Forbidden Technique) where the user makes solid copies of him/herself.

Shuriken Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu -Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique

- A Ninjutsu Technique where the user throws a Shuriken or other small weapon and makes Shadow Clones of it.

Shuriken Hinome Sorasu no Jutsu -Shuriken Light Bending Technique

- A simple Genjutsu Technique where the user makes the light around his kunai bend so they would be harder to spot.

Suiton: Suijinheki -Water Element: Water Wall

- A Water Type Ninjutsu technique where the user uses already existing water and raises it around him/herself and possible others in a circular barrier.

Suiton: Teppoudama -Water Element: Bullet

- A simple Water Type Ninjutsu technique where the user fires one or several small bullets of water from his/her mouth.

Katon: Housenka no Jutsu -Fire Element: Balsam Technique

- A simple Fire Type Ninjutsu where the user fires several small but relatively powerful balls of fire from his/her mouth.

Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu -Fire Element: Grand Fireball Technique

- A Fire Type Ninjutsu where the user fires a stream of fire from his/her mouth, that forms a large ball of fire.

Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu -Earth Element: Suicidal Beheading Technique

- An Earth Type Ninjutsu where the user is buried underground using his chakra. He can then move freely inside the ground.


	4. A Day Off

**Title: **True Shinobi

**Chapter Title: **A Day Off

**Auhtor: **Syfes

* * *

Shino was released from the hospital two weeks after they had returned to Konoha. He wouldn't be able to start training again for at least another month though. The muscles in his chest had been fried and all the nerves in that area where damaged as well from the high amount of electricity pumped into it. He was able to join his team on the simple D-rank missions though, as long as they didn't require him to physically strain himself. The whole team had resumed the schedule they followed before the mission, but the entire team had easily doubled their effort. Genma noticed that his team now also paid a lot more attention trough his theoretical lectures. Naruto had stopped his silly complaints and remarks almost completely, something that seemed to make the atmosphere inside the team much cooler. Although none of them mentioned it, the whole team apart from Naruto actually started to miss the stupid remarks and such that they found so annoying before. Especially Hinata found the change in Naruto's attitude depressing. His lively character was something she personally admired and often found courage in. 

Genma was pretty sure that his team would easily get through the evaluation tomorrow. Team 8 would then be able to perform some of their missions without a jounin teacher. Because of that, the team would need a new leader and Genma figured that since Shino was currently the smartest of the team, he would probably get that position. So while Hinata and Naruto where training their Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, Genma kept educating Shino about various rules and strategies. Naruto was probably the one who made the most visible progress in his training. Trough many hours of extra work, he had been able to master the Kirigakure no Jutsu, the Suiton Suijinheki **(AN: That's NOT the version the Second Hokage uses, like someone asked in a review. It's like the one Kakashi uses in his fight against Itachi in the anime (episode 82). Don't remember if it's used in the manga). **At the moment, he was now practicing another jutsu that was used in combination with the Kirigakure no Jutsu. This technique would charge the mist with more chakra so that it would partially block sounds. Also this technique allowed him to sense where his opponent was as long as that opponent didn't move too fast. Hinata had improved a lot as well. She had now mastered the Goukakyuu no Jutsu and was continuing to work on basic Healing Jutsu. She could now heal any kind of cuts and bruises as long as there wasn't any damage to the organs, bones or ligaments. Before she could progress any further, she had to study the human body more closely, so that's what she had been doing for the last few days in combination with her Taijutsu training. Her Taijutsu itself hadn't improved a lot, but the whole ordeal they had been trough eventually made her somewhat more confident in her own skills and because of that she was able to use her moves more effectively while sparring with Naruto or Genma.

Genma was happy but at the same time saddened by his team's progress. They seemed to throw themselves into their training, but at the same time they never took some time of just to have fun or a bit of time for themselves. From dawn until sunset Naruto could be found training in their usual spot. Shino and Hinata spent the same amount of time studying. Genma decided he needed to talk about it with them.

"Naruto!" Yelled Genma, loud enough to overcome Naruto's technique.

"Yeah?" The blonde called back from inside a large cloud of mist.

"Cancel that jutsu for a while. I want the team together for a minute."

"Sure." He responded before he let the cloud disappear and joined his two team mates and his sensei.

"Tomorrow I'll be going on a mission." Genma informed them. "You guys have the day off tomorrow. I don't want you to spend this free time to train or study, got it?"

"But sensei?" The Hinata protested.

"What?" Naruto added

"Listen to me.You guy's have been training for the last few weeks day in day out, without relaxing or taking some time to have fun. You might not have noticed, but I've seen you guys slowly wearing yourselves out. If you keep going like this you're going to break one of these days."

"But…" Hinata started, biting her lip. She wanted to improve, and to do that, she had to train…

"A good training schedule should include a healthy amount of rest. The body and mind need time to recuperate as well. If you don't, your progress will diminish considerably and eventually it will break you."

It took Genma quite some time more to convince them, but in the end they gave in and promised him to take a day off. As Genma left with a cloud of smoke, Naruto thought to himself that he would ask his teacher how to 'poof away' like that one of these days. He proposed to the other two that they would hang out together tomorrow and find some of the other rookie genin, but Shino let them now that he was going to go look for bugs in the forest. This left Naruto and Hinata to make plans together.

"So Hinata, you wanna hang out tomorrow?"

"S-Sure Naruto-kun." Hinata responded stuttering and blushinga little taken off guard. Naruto paused, thinking. She hadn't done that in a while. It was true, lately she had become quite comfortable around the boy she admired, but it seemed that she hadn't been able to get rid of the blushing and stuttering completely.

The three team mates said their goodbyes to each other and headed home. The day had been tiring and they could all use a good night's sleep.

The next day Hinata found herself on cloud nine as she walked towards her blond team mate's house. She was going to spend the whole day alone with Naruto. Just the two of them, without Shino or Genma-sensei! She wondered what they would do. Would he take her out for lunch later….or would they go watch a movie … or…. Hinata found herself blushing as she started imagining how they could walk trough the park and her Naruto-kun would then turn around to finally confess his undying love for her and then they would kiss…. She sighed, a sad smile on her face.

'Like that would ever happen...' She thought to herself, inwardly berating herself for the little fantasy…

Meanwhile Naruto had awoken better than he had in weeks. He vowed that today he wouldn't think about what happened on their mission and he would completely forget everything about training. He was going to have fun! And so he started planning what he and Hinata would do. They could go eat some ramen at Ichiraku's and then maybe they could go find some of the other teams he figured. Perhaps they would run into Sasuke and his team. He grinned. He imagined beating Sasuke with all his new jutsu and then Hinata-chan… no Sakura-chan would look at him with those dreamy eyes and would ask him out for a date! Naruto smirked as he started to come up with several ways to utterly humiliate Sasuke**-**teme. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door. Knowing it was Hinata, he rushed to the door, feeling quite excited.

"Hi Hinata!"

"Good morning N-Naruto-…kun" The girl responded blushing.

Naruto wasn't wearing his vest over the stretchy black shirt he usually wore and Hinata was forced into remember that day at the river. Thankfully there was no nosebleed involved this time.

"Hey Hinata, I figured we could go shopping for some new threads this morning. I just can't get those blood stains out of my other vest and this one is pretty much messed up as well. So what do you think?" The pay from their missions had been good, especially since an A-rank mission paid a lot more then a D-rank one. In fact each of their team members had enough money to buy a full new wardrobe…about 5 times.

Hinata quickly forgot her blush and the reason for it.

"Yeah, sure Naruto-kun. I could use some new clothes myself."

"Great! After that we can go out for lunch, maybe at Ichiraku's."

"That sounds just fine, Naruto-kun."

Thirty minutes later they were both browsing through clothes in the shop that they had visited with Genma before.

"Hey Hinata. What do you think about these?" He called out as he held up a deep dark orange vest, similar to the old dark grey ones but with short sleeves. It wasn't flashy orange like his jumpsuit, so he figured his sensei would find it acceptable.

"It's really nice Naruto-kun."

"Do you think I should buy the pants with it as well?" He asked, holding up a pair of pants in the same colour.

"Aahh…I don't know… I think I saw another pair in the same colour. It had a lot more pockets and looked pretty good as well."

She went over to the racks where Naruto was searching and quickly found them. She held the vest and pants before him to check if they looked good together and nodded appreciatively. Just then the old man Hokage passed by them with a white robe packed in plastic swung over his shoulder.

"Ah young love. It's such a beautiful thing to behold." The old man muttered, but still loud enough for them to hear. This left the pair of teens blushing a nice deep shade of red. Neither of them was able to retort before the Third Hokage disappeared somewhere in the depths of the shop.

"Heh…Silly old man. Must be loosing it in his old days, ne?" Naruto said rather awkwardly.

"Yeah….Silly…" Hinata respondedslowly losing her blush.

An hour later both had put the whole thing out of their heads and the kids had picked out several more outfits each. As Hinata went into the back to try on one of her outfits, he was still browsing around for something else he might like, but was distracted by the view he got from a very conveniently placed mirror. He now got a full look of Hinata undressing and the blonde couldn't help but stare at her almost naked chest.

"Wow….She has some nice…"

Naruto tore his eyes away from the mirror. He shouldn't be looking at her like that. He was not a pervert, well not really anyways, and he definitely shouldn't be watching his team mate like that. To save him from himself, Naruto decided to move somewhere else so he wouldn't be able to look into it again. At the same time a smirking Hokage left the shop, done playing matchmaker for today.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata called out.

"Y-Yeah?" Naruto responded as he moved towards her voice.

"Do you think these clothes look good on me?"

She was now wearing a black stretchy shirt, a little like Naruto's, with black pants and a long cream colored cotton vest over it that nearly reached her knees.

"Yeah…you're …uhm clothes look good on you…yeah" He fumbled, not able to get the picture from the mirror out of his head.

"I know it's more casual and not really for missions, but I really like them." She said again, examining the clothes, a little worried about whether she should take them or not.

"…They're really nice." Naruto managed, difficulty. She made up her mind, she'd take the clothes.

They paid and left the shop another twenty minutes later, each wearing one of their new outfits and loaded with shopping bags. Naruto now wore a dark green vest with short sleeves and pants in the same colour. He still wore a black masked stretchy shirt like his older one and now had his forehead protector around his neck. Hinata sported a vest like Naruto's but a deep purple one and simple pants in the same colour. She also wore a black stretchy shirt with mask like the blonde. She had also moved her forehead protector to her neck.

"So Hinata, what do you want to do now. We still have an hour before noon."

"Uhm…Maybe we could check out some other shops around here."

So that's what they did. They had a good time walking trough the busy streets of the shopping district and entering several shops. Naruto bought some new kunai, shuriken, explosive notes, smoke bombs and the likes together with a second weapons pouch. Hinata bought herself a set of senbon. She wasn't really good at using them since she had never trained with those before, but she figured their sensei could teach her. Some time later they left for the ramen stand.

"Oi! Dog breath!"

"Huh? Naruto? Is that you?"Kiba replied, shocked.

"Yeah, like the new threads?"

"Sure, and who…Can't be! Is that you Hinata?" The boy's eyes widened even more, his eyes taking in the image of the pair, standing by each other in front of him.

"Hai, It's been a while Kiba-kun. I haven't seen you since graduation." She said softly, but confidently.

"Wow…You guys sure have changed. How's Shino?"

"Good I guess. He's out gathering bugs or something like that." Naruto answered.

They were interrupted by the barking of Kiba's dog.

"Good morning to you too, Akamaru-kun." Hinata greeted the little thing, smiling.

"So where are you guys going?" Kiba asked.

"Ichiraku's for lunch. Want to join us?"

"Cool."

During their meal they made small talk about their training schedules and such. Kiba was impressed to say the least with their efforts and their change.

"Damn, it looks like you guys improved quite a bit."

They all ate healthy portions but Naruto decided to stop at four bowls. The need for more was almost overwhelming but his determination was able to overcome his lust for ramen…somewhat.

"So how's the Uchiha bastard doing?"

"Meh…He's always acting high and mighty, especially since he was able to activate his bloodline limit. It wasn't too bad in the beginning, but now he's always acting like we're slowing him down."

"Yeah," Naruto responded, "that sounds like Sasuke to me. But I know I could whip his ass any day now."

"I don't think so Naruto. He's really improved. Since he's got that Sharingan, I haven't been able to get even close to beating him. It's like he sees everything with those new eyes." Kiba answered seriously.

"Meh…I've become loads stronger since I left the academy. I bet I could whip any of you guys."

Hinata was silently following the whole conversation from the sidelines.

"Want to try me blondie? I bet me and Akamaru would beat you in seconds." Kiba retorted.

"I-I think Naruto-kun could beat Sasuke" Hinata interrupted, trying to break up the fight before it started.

"Huh…Hinata…you don't know what you're talking about." Kiba said.

"Well, why don't I prove it to you. Tell me where the Uchiha bastard is and I'll go and whip his arse."

"Sure loudmouth," Kiba smirked, "It'll be fun watching him beat the crap out of you. He should be somewhere near training area 7. That's where our team trains most of the time."

After paying for their lunch, the three teens left for the training area. They found Sasuke in the middle of a rather intense-looking training. Hinata gulped silently.

"Oi! Sasuke! This guy wants to challenge you!" Kiba yelled.

"Who?" Sasuke asked as he turned around to face them.

"Loudmouth here wants to have a crack at you."

"The dobe? Humph, he's not worth my time." Sasuke said and got back to his target practice. Seconds later he was interrupted by a kunai aimed for his head that he easily dodged.

"Scared are you, little Sasuke-kun?" Naruto asked mockingly.

"Fine, but don't start crying when I hurt you. Got it?"

"The same goes for you, bastard!" Naruto yelled as he dashed forward, several kunai drawn. Sasuke responded by rushing towards the blonde and at the same time threw half a dozen shuriken towards him. Naruto easily dodged the small projectiles and let loose his own kunai.

"Shuriken Hinome Sorasu no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled as he flashed trough a couple of hand seals. Sasuke had a hard time dodging the kunai that were a lot harder to see now and one managed to knick his shoulder.

"What's the matter Sasuke? I haven't even started and you're already bleeding!" Naruto taunted.

In response, Sasuke sent several small fireballs his way.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!"

'Housenka no jutsu? That's right. Sensei told me that the Uchiha clan have always favoured fire techniques. Meh, I can counter that easily.' Naruto thought.

"Suiton: Teppoudama!" Naruto yelled, countering every one of the fireballs with water bullets. While Naruto was focused on the fireballs however, Sasuke had rushed towards the blonde and now landed several punches in the loudmouth's chest before Naruto was able to counter them with his own moves.

'Damn. His Taijutsu is way better than mine.'

Naruto had an even harder time dodging and blocking Sasuke's moves as the boy activated his Sharingan.

'It's like he predicts every move I'm about to make!'

"Prepared to take back those words, dobe?"

"You wish!" Naruto yelled as he jumped backwards to get some distance between him and Sasuke.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

"Suiton: Suijinheki!"

A cloud of steam erupted as the ball of fire collided with Naruto's wall of water. Naruto meanwhile replaced himself with a Kage-Bunshin and hid in the forest behind him.

Sasuke rushed towards the copy of the blonde and engaged it once more in a Taijutsu battle. The shadow clone was quickly defeated and vanished in a cloud of smoke.

'Damn, where is that dead last moron?' Sasuke thought, his eyes darting around.

Meanwhile, Kiba watched from the sidelines in astonishment. He wondered how that loudmouth had been able to become that strong in such a small amount of time. It was like he himself had barely made any progress at all since he was assigned to team 5. Sitting besides Kiba, Hinata observed the battle with a puzzled expression.

She couldn't help but notice how weak Sasuke seemed to her. Since the boy graduated from the academy with top scores, she had expected him to be a lot stronger then the rest of the rookie genin, but Sasuke didn't look any stronger than she was herself. In fact she wondered whether she might be stronger then Sasuke or not. Their skills were quite similar as well.

"Hey dobe? Are you running from me?" Sasuke yelled. Naruto answered his call with another technique.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu!"

'Damn! Where did that dobe learn THAT technique! It's the same technique that Zabuza guy used!' Sasuke thought. He swore before having to dodge several shuriken. He missed the ones that were coming from behind though and got hit in his left arm by two of them.

"Ready to give up yet Sasuke? You don't know where I am, but I now where you are. I can keep throwing weapons at you for the next few hours and you won't be able to dodge them." Naruto informed him in a sinister and cold tone. To add to the effect, Naruto also blocked all sounds from outside so that his voice was all that Sasuke could hear. As the Uchiha noticed the sounds from the forest around them disappearing, fear kicked in instinctively.

"Coward!" Sasuke yelled. "To scared to face me like a man huh?"

"Shinobi Rule 13:" Naruto responded coolly, but inwardly, he was shaking with pride at his own greatness, "A shinobi operates from the shadows. He is devious, sly, stealthy and uses any means necessary to accomplish his missions." He had taken that one straight out of Genma's book. Their sensei had spent quite some time teaching them how battles weren't only fought by punches, kicks and jutsu. Winning the battle psychologically could often be a great way of gaining advantage over your opponent.

In the end it took another ten minutes before Sasuke finally gave in, cuts and scrapes covering his entire body. Hinata offered to heal them, but Sasuke took of without another word.

"Wow Naruto." Kiba exclaimed, "You're right. You would've beaten the crap out of me."

"Thanks Kiba. You're taking it a lot better than I thought you would." Naruto responded, smiling his sunny smile.

"No problem. That doesn't mean its going to be like that the next time we meet though." Kiba retorted.

"I'm looking forward to that time then. Maybe I'll get a real challenge then."

"Count on it loudmouth!"

"Right, dog breath!"

Meanwhile at the Hokage tower, the group of jounin teachers stood in front of the Hokage himself.

"We will begin the evaluation of the new genin teams now." The old man spoke. "Are there any of you who whish to withdraw their teams already?"

Three of the eight teachers present stepped forward and gave their reasons for withdrawal, like lack of teamwork or severe lack of skills. Next, the Third continued by listing each team's mission record and personal observations that he himself had made.

"Team 5: 19 D-Rank missions completed successfully and 1 C-Rank mission completed successfully but with complications and injuries. Individual skills are average genin level and average teamwork. Team 6: 23 D-Rank missions completed successfully. Individual skills below average genin level and acceptable teamwork. Team 7 dropped. Team 8: 32 D-Rank missions and 1 C-Rank mission completed successfully.1 A-Rank mission completed successfully but with one heavily injured team member. Individual skills well above average genin level and great teamwork. Team 9 and 10 dropped as well. Team 11: 21 D-Rank missions completed successfully. Individual skills are low genin level but above average teamwork. Team 12: 34 D-Rank missions completed successfully. Individual skills below average but excellent teamwork. Is there anyone present who disagrees with me on these conclusions?"

Since nobody answered, he continued. "I have decided that Team 5, Team 8 and Team 12 will be allowed to continue as active genin in teams and perform missions. The 6 remaining genin from teams 6 and 11 will be allowed to apply for individual jobs. Kurenai, Deaka, you two will resume active duty starting next week. You can now go and inform your teams."

"Yes Hokage-sama." The two answered disappointed before they left. Neither of them looked forward to informing their teams of their failure.

"Genma, Asuma, you can leave as well and inform your teams about their success. Kakashi, you should go check up on one of your students. It seems Uchiha Sasuke had a bit of a fight with Team 8's Uzumaki Naruto and lost quite harshly. Make sure he gets proper medical attention as well."

Genma and Asuma couldn't help but laugh out loud as they left the Hokage tower a few minutes later. They quickly went to search for their own teams and found two members of Team 8 together with Team 12.

"Hinata, Naruto, isn't Shino with you guys?" Genma asked as he and his colleague jumped into the clearing where they sat.

"Nah, he went out to look at bugs or something." Naruto answered.

"So, did we pass?" Shikamaru asked his teacher.

"Heh…You're just too smart for your own good, Shikamaru. How did you figure it out this time?" Asuma asked.

"I didn't. Ino did. You left your notebook lying around." Shikamaru answered, smirking.

"Ah well... Yes, you guys passed."

"Ne sensei?" Naruto interrupted, "What did they pass?"

"All the rookie genin teams were evaluated today. Only three teams would be able to pass. The others team would be disbanded."

"So…Did we pass?" Naruto asked unsure.

"I'm sorry Naruto…"

"NO!"

"You passed!"

A great THUMP was heard. Several people who heard it winced visibly.

"THAT WAS NOT FUNNY SENSEI!" Naruto yelled at his teacher, who was currently on the ground, nursing his head where Naruto had beaten it.

"Ouch...Sorry kid. Couldn't help myself. If you guys happen to see Shino today, tell him about it, k?"

"Yeah okay."

"Oh by the way Naruto. Tell me how you beat up the Uchiha kid?"

"WHAT?" An angry Ino yelled from behind the blonde. "Did you hurt my Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto took one look around and quickly fled the scene with a very pissed off Yamanaka chasing him, leaving the rest of the group laughing their asses off.

* * *

AN: So did you like it? Hate it? Review please! 

Also you can find a link to the forum for this story on my profile page.


	5. About Seals and Memories

**Title: **True Shinobi

**Chapter Title:** About Seals and Memories

**Author: **Syfes

* * *

It was still early in the morning but the third Hokage of Konoha was already lost in deep thoughts after reading the latest report he had gotten from the Hidden Sand. Apparently two more raids were reported along the border of the Wind Country and each of those attacks were believed to be led by a cloud shinobi. Since the raids happened along the western border of the Wind Country it was of no immediate concern for Konoha. The old man was very aware however that these actions could lead to new struggles between the nations. So far, the Hidden Sand Village hadn't found any solid evidence that could prove the Cloud involvement in this whole scenario without a doubt, so nothing could be done yet except increasing patrols along that border.

He looked up sharply when he sensed the presence of a person outside his window. With a little effort he was able to figure out his identity.

"Why can't you just enter through the door like everyone else does, Jiraiya?" The old man asked his visitor.

"You're getting old sensei. I've been outside your window for a full 8 minutes now." Jiraiya responded while climbing inside.

"So what did you need me for?" Jiraiya continued. "You're message hinted at something important."

"Uzumaki Naruto" The old Hokage responded.

"Uzumaki… Ah, you mean the Kyuubi-kid right?"

"Yes indeed."

Jiraiya studied his old sensei for several moments.

"Forget it." He said

"What?"

"I'm not training him. I had enough trouble with my last student to last me a lifetime."

The old man sniggered.

"That's not what I was going to ask you. It seems even an old man like me can still surprise you. I need information about the Kyuubi's seal."

"Then you've got the wrong man. I don't even know anything about that seal or the technique that was used to trap the demon."

"Perhaps, but you're the specialist around here. I want you to take a look at it and hopefully give us an idea of what it could do."

"Did something happen with the boy?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact, we strongly believe he actually has been able to channel the demon's chakra."

Jiraiya looked pensive for a moment before answering.

"Sure. I can't promise you anything, but I'll take a look at it."

* * *

Naruto meanwhile woke up with a serious headache. Last night, he had been chased around the village for hours by Ino who was later joined by Sakura after she heard what had happened. Even with all his new skills, Naruto had had a hard time deceiving the two kunoichi for long and they eventually caught up with him. The results weren't pretty and if it hadn't been for Naruto's strange healing gifts he would probably have spent the night in the hospital. After the beating he had received, Naruto wasn't sure if he liked Sakura that much any more.

He wasn't able to get dressed, before someone knocked on his door. Naruto grumpily got out of bed and went to greet his early visitor. He opened the door to find a somewhat familiar looking chuunin. He didn't know his name though.

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Y-y-yes" Naruto answered yawning.

"The Hokage requests your presence at 8AM in his office."

"Yeah sure. Thanks." Naruto responded before closing the door.

Naruto wasn't happy. This meant he had about 20 minutes to get freshen up, get dressed and then make his way to the Hokage tower without a decent breakfast.

"I hate Mondays…" He grumbled to no-one in particular.

About 25 minutes later Naruto entered the Hokage tower. He was still in a foul mood, but was becoming quite curious. His team mates were most likely not going to be there, so a mission assignment was probably out of the question.

Having arrived at the Hokage's office, he knocked and entered the room where he found the old Hokage with another old man.

"Good morning Naruto."

"Good morning Oyaji (Old Man)." Naruto grumbled, but nodded politely to the Hokage and his guest.

"Naruto, meet my old student Jiraiya."

"Hi." Naruto greeted the man with a little wave of his hand, clearly uninterested.

"Clearly you don't know who I am, young man!" Jiraiya exclaimed before he performed his utterly ridiculous dance, something that Naruto wasn't really able to appreciate at that moment.

"Could we just get to the point please?" Naruto asked massaging his temples.

The Hokage laughed out loud at Naruto's behaviour and complied with his wishes.

"Very well. First of all I need to ask you a question. Do you remember what happened to you at Shingetsu village during your fight?"

Naruto looked surprised. "What do you mean?"

"At one point in your fight, did you feel more powerful? A sudden rush of chakra perhaps?"

Naruto remembered the whole thing vividly, since it had never left his thoughts for more than a few hours ever since.

_Flashback_

"_What's the matter kid? Worried about your girlfriend?" His opponent taunted. "Saito will have killed the Hyuuga by now. He is a lot stronger than I am."_

_Naruto tried to keep up hope, but his confidence in his team mate was quickly vanishing._

"_He's probably cutting her eyes out as we speak. It will make a great present for Raikage-sama."_

"_No! Hinata! You bastards!" Naruto cried as he felt a strong surge of chakra flowing through his body. His nails and canines grew as well, but Naruto paid no attention to these changes as his attention was completely focused on his opponent._

"_Then I'll avenge her." Naruto stated with a chilling coldness before rushing towards his opponent with inhuman speed. He just grabbed his opponent by the arm and threw him towards one of the houses as if he was a puppet. The man collapsed on impact with the wall and never moved again._

_End Flashback_

"Yeah I remember. I don't know how it happened. Why do you need to know?" Naruto asked.

"Can you first tell me exactly what happened?" Jiraiya asked this time.

"I felt a lot of energy inside me and around me. I remember feeling my teeth grow… and my nails turned into some kind of claws."

"That sounds about right." The Hokage said. "It seems to fit with what Genma told me."

"Yes well it seems it was more than just a rush of chakra. This partial transformation worries me to be honest." Jiraiya replied.

"I agree, but it doesn't really change the situation, does it?" The Hokage responded once more.

"Ahem! I hate to interrupt, but could someone explain all this to me?" Naruto asked, still in a foul mood.

"Sorry, Naruto-kun. You're right." The Hokage responded. "Well, it seems that the rush of chakra and the transformation were probably caused by the Kyuubi."

Now that did catch Naruto's interest.

"We don't really now how this happens. Jiraiya is a specialist when it comes to seals so I asked him to take a look at your seal. We want to make sure that it isn't malfunctioning in any way. Can you show him the seal for a second."

The blonde proceeded to take of his vest and his shirt. As Naruto channelled some chakra to make the seal appear, Jiraiya bent down to study it. The Third's student made several comments that Naruto didn't understand at all and then made a sketch of it on a small scroll.

"There's nothing to worry about kid." Jiraiya informed him smiling. "The chakra was definitely the Kyuubi's but as far as I can tell, you have complete control. There's no risk of the fox breaking out either. Currently the seal will only respond under great stress, but with time you might learn to control it."

Naruto nodded and put his clothes back on.

"That's all we needed to know. You're help was greatly appreciated Jiraiya." The Hokage said. "If there's nothing else you need, you can go now Naruto. I believe you have other things to do."

Naruto nodded once more and headed for the door.

"Oh Naruto. Take this." The old man said as he threw the kid a small red pill. "That should help with that headache of yours."

"Thanks Ojiisan." Naruto said before tuning around and leaving the office.

"Now Jiraiya. Could you explain to me in a bit more detail how the seal works."

"Quite ingenious really. The basis is a surprisingly simple containment seal. That's the spiral you saw. It's surrounded by two complicated Shisho Fuin (Fours Symbol Seal) combined into a Hake no Fuin Shiki (Eight Trigrams Sealing Style). This allows the Kyuubi's chakra to flow directly into the eight chakra gates of the kid's body."

"So you mean that when the kid releases the Kyuubi's chakra, he opens the gates?" The Hokage asked surprised.

"No, it just allows the chakra to flow into his own chakra system in the most controlled way possible. It also means that there is a constant flow of chakra from the Kyuubi to the boy. This means that the chakra he normally uses also contains a little of the Kyuubi's chakra anyway."

The Third was slightly surprised by this revelation.

"But how can he combine two different chakra? As far as I know you can't combine two different chakra into one."

"True enough, but Naruto received this seal only days or maybe even hours after he was born. I believe this might have caused Naruto's chakra to adapt to the presence of a foreign chakra, making them somewhat similar. Also he doesn't combine them, he just channels both besides each other. I don't think he realizes that though."

The Hokage nodded thoughtfully.

"But even then, he should have quite some trouble controlling his chakra, shouldn't he? His academy records only hint at slightly below average control."

"As far as I can tell, he probably has more chakra control then even some of the jounin in this village."

"But there's a limit to a person's ability to control his chakra. So that means that at one point, his control wont be able to progress further, right?"

"Yes it does. However, I believe that if Naruto uses more of the demon's chakra, his own chakra will align to it even more, thus making it easier to control."

The Hokage silently observed his student for a moment.

"Is there more you need to tell me?"

"There is something else that worries me a bit. If Naruto would channel large amounts of the demon's chakra, it's possible that some of its essence might flow through as well."

"So you mean he might be able to influence the boy?"

"As far as I can tell, he'd have to channel insane amounts for that to be possible. But yes, I guess it's possible."

"I'll inform his sensei so that he can keep an eye on it."

"Very well." Jiraiya responded.

* * *

Naruto walked back to his apartment. It was almost 9AM and he hadn't yet had breakfast, so he decided that training could wait a little longer. He arrived at his apartment a few minutes later to find his white-eyed team mate approaching his apartment before him.

"Ohayou (Good morning) Hinata!"

Hinata turned around to face him.

"Good morning Naruto-kun. I didn't know you were out already?"

"Needed to go to the Hokage for something."

"What for?"

"It wasn't really important, but … uhm … it's a bit … personal you see."

Hinata didn't question him any further after that.

"But because of that I haven't had breakfast yet, and I'm really hungry right now." Naruto continued as he unlocked the door to his apartment and entered. He left the door open for Hinata, but she didn't seem to follow immediately.

"Hey Hinata, come in! There's no point standing outside."

"H-Hai!" She answered nervously and followed the blonde inside. Since she had never been inside of his apartment, she was quite surprised by what she found. She had imagined the place to be a lot messier than this. Not that it was all neat and tidy, but still better than one would expect from a young teenager living on his own.

Naruto took some stuff out of the fridge for his breakfast, while Hinata looked around the living room.

"Do you want something to eat? I know you like this stuff." He said as he held out a carton of low-fat yoghurt.

"No thanks," she responded smiling, "I'm fine. I just had breakfast."

Hinata continued to look while Naruto ate.

"When was this picture taken?" she asked, pointing at a picture besides the door that led to his bedroom. On it was a much younger Naruto standing next to the Hokage, while wearing the old man's hat. Naruto took the time to swallow his food before responding.

"That one? It was taken on the same day I joined the academy. That's the day I swore to the old man that I would wear his hat one day." Naruto replied grinning. "He let me wear it for the picture."

The next few minutes were spent quietly as Hinata continued to explore the apartment and Naruto finished his breakfast. It was Hinata who broke the silence.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you! Shino isn't training with us today. He told me yesterday that he was going to train with his father for the next few days."

Naruto nodded.

"Hinata? Can you help me a bit with my Taijutsu today?" He asked her.

"Sure. I don't know if I'll be able to help you a lot, but I'll try."

"Thanks Hinata-chan." Naruto responded, adding the suffix without noticing. Hinata did notice however and blushed a whole new shade of red.

They left his apartment a few minutes later only for Naruto to have some weirdo in a green one-piece spandex suit run into him, knocking him to the ground.

"I'm soooo sorry! To make up for my grievous error I will run another 10 laps around the village and punch the log 500 times!"

Naruto and Hinata sweat dropped.

"….Whatever…." He said.

"YOSHI!" The green spandex weirdo exclaimed before giving them a one-handed thumbs up and bright smile before running off and leaving two dumbfounded teenagers.

"Who was that Hinata?" Naruto asked.

"No idea."

"I guess that's a good thing." He said, before picking himself up and brushing the dust off his clothes.

Hinata and Naruto spent the rest of the day training on the blonde's Taijutsu skills. It turned out that Hinata was actually a good teacher, as she had been trained in Taijutsu since she could barely walk and was very patient. Before the evening fell, Naruto had already improved loads, since he had never received proper training.

* * *

That evening, their teacher found himself in the Hokage office.

"Ah, Genma-san. How are you?"

"I'm fine Hokage-sama. What did you call me for?"

"I need to talk to you about Naruto."

"Naruto?"

"More specifically Naruto's seal. One of my old students has studied Naruto's seal and was able to figure out precisely how the seal worked. It seems that Naruto's use of the demon's chakra was exactly what the seal was designed to do."

"It was? But is there no risk of the fox being able to free himself?"

"There is no risk of that happening. In the future Naruto should even be able to use the Kyuubi's chakra whenever he needs it."

"I see."

"There is one problem however. As Naruto channels large amounts of the demon's chakra, it's essence might seep through as well. None of us is sure what this might mean, but there is a possibility of the Kyuubi being able to influence Naruto if that happens."

"So you mean that if he uses too much, he could turn into a killing monster like the Kyuubi?" Genma asked. The fear and concern for his student was easily spotted by the old man.

"According to Jiraiya, the odds on that are very small. But right now, no-one can tell anything for sure. That's why I need to ask you to report anything relating to this matter to me, whenever anything happens."

Genma responded quickly.

"Off course Hokage-sama. Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Has Naruto had any difficulties with his chakra control recently?"

"Not really. He still wastes small amounts of chakra when performing Ninjutsu, but his chakra control seems to be progressing quite well. Especially since our mission at Shingetsu village. Also because Naruto has great stamina, it doesn't really matter right now." Genma said, followed by a growl from his stomach.

"I see. Then there's nothing else you need to know. Go get some dinner." The old man said smiling.

"Thank you Hokage-sama." Genma responded blushing before leaving the office.

* * *

A few days later, Naruto was performing his warm-up exercises. He had been waiting in their training area for almost an hour now. Hinata had promised him that they would continue his Taijutsu training today, but she hadn't showed up yet. This was very uncommon for the shy Hyuuga girl, since she always had a tendency to arrive several minutes early. The blonde was startled out of his thoughts by the arrival of Genma and Shino.

"Hey Shino, Sensei! Have you seen Hinata yet?"

"She didn't feel up to training. She had the same about a month ago, so I guess it's .. uhm … 'that time of the month' for her I guess."

"Huh? What do you mean 'that time of the month'? Like some chronic disease or what? I didn't know she had something like that."

Genma and Shino sweat dropped.

"No Naruto, that's not what I mean. Uhm… You really don't know what I'm talking about?"

Naruto shook his head vigorously.

"Didn't your…" Genma started but then stopped abruptly.

He had been about to say 'Didn't your parents teach you about boys and girls?' but he suddenly realized that Naruto didn't have any parents when growing up. The thought of what had happened to his student years ago brought back sad memories. He tried not to show it, but Shino still noticed the slight flicker in his eyes.

"No-one ever told you about what happens to grown up girls and women every month?"

Naruto responded negative once more.

This was getting really uncomfortable for Genma. He knew that by training a team, he would be responsible for the education of his pupils. He hadn't considered having to give one of them 'The Talk' however. Even at the age of 30, Genma himself didn't have all that much 'experience'.

Shino was observing his teacher's discomfort with a hidden smirk on his face. He sat down at the foot of the closest tree and observed the two, like he was watching some funny television show.

'This should be interesting to watch.' The bug user thought to himself.

"Uh… Shino? I need to talk to Naruto for a moment in private alright. Why don't you warm up already?" Genma said before leaving with Naruto.

'Bummer…' Shino thought.

* * *

About an hour later, Genma had finished his 'Talk' with Naruto. The blonde sat on the ground in front of his teacher, a disbelieving look frozen on his face. It had been there since Genma started talking. Naruto knew the general concept of sex and how babies were made, but all this information was new to him. The boy sat unmoving for the next few minutes before responding.

"So they bleed all that stuff out of their…uhm…you-know-what every month?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"Yes they do." Genma responded, having gotten past the discomfort halfway through the talk.

"So Hinata…" Naruto questioned blushing.

"Yes. Sometimes they get a little sick when that happens."

"And it happens to all girls?"

"When they're old enough."

"So they really…?"

"I think you've grasped the basics." Genma interrupted smiling. "Now we should get back to training."

For the rest of the day, Genma took Hinata's place and helped improve Naruto's Taijutsu. Since he found that Hinata had taught Naruto a lot of the basics already, he proceeded to show Naruto some new moves. Genma had never practiced just one style, so he was able to show Naruto some different one's that would suit him best.

After the team left for their respective homes, Genma wandered around the training area, his mind all over the place. Having to talk with Naruto about something that his parents should've taught him, now brought the memories of 'that night' back. It had been only days after the Kyuubi had been defeated.

_- Flashback -_

_It was late in the evening as a 17 year-old Genma entered the Hokage office to give his mission report._

"_Very well, Ge-" The Hokage started before being interrupted. _

"_Hokage-sama! We've just found several killed guards at the Seventh Outpost. Apparently someone fled the village."_

"_Do we have any idea who might be behind this?" The Hokage asked quickly._

_The Chuunin who had just interrupted them, held up a bunch of long blonde hairs._

"_They were bound, cut and suffocated by these, Hokage-sama…" He said._

"_Can't be…" The Hokage whispered._

_Genma was too busy staring at the hairs held by the chuunin to respond. He knew only one person who was capable of such techniques. That person was his very own teacher, Yamaku-sensei._

"_Apparently she also left her son in the middle of a square, surrounded by villagers. Some genin were able to get the brat out however." The chuunin said in a tone that clearly indicated he didn't blame the mother for doing so, and cursed the genin for getting the kid out._

_At the same moment, the three genin entered the office. One of them who Genma knew as Kurenai, carried the little kid. He also recognized the baby as his sensei's son, Naruto._

"I want one team of ANBU to investigate the outpost and one team of Hunter-nin to retrieve the one responsible for these crimes, most likely … Uzumaki Yamaku."

_It was clear to him now what had happened. His sensei had left her son and fled the village, killing two of her comrades on the way out. Genma left the office without another word. The overpowering feelings of sadness, betrayal and even shame making it hard for him to think properly. The Hokage didn't make any effort to stop him._

_- End Flashback –_

"Why Sensei…" Genma whispered sadly. "How could you betray your own son … and your husband's wishes for the boy?"

* * *

Phew…It's been a while but I finally got around to finishing this chapter. The next one shouldn't take nearly as long. I hope you liked it, so please review! If you have any special questions or comments, feel free to post them on my forum (You'll find the link on my profile page).

Once more my pathetic attempts were made readable by my beta Ryuu no Taiyo and some more by Ibozun!


	6. Challenge

**Story Title:** True Shinobi

**Chapter Title:** Challenge

**Author:** Syfes

**Beta-reader:** Ryuu no Taiyo

**Website: **www (dot) ffsanctuary (dot) co (dot) nr

* * *

Hinata quietly but enthusiastically resumed training two days later. The black haired girlhad decided to train with Naruto and Shino in the mornings and continue her medic training in the afternoons. 

That morning, Naruto and Hinata were sparring. At least they were supposed to be, because it had soon turned into something else. Naruto was still impressed by the stuff he had learned from Genma during their talk and couldn't stop thinking about it while 'sparring' with Hinata. And since Hinata wasn't used to receiving this much attention from Naruto, it all resulted in a serious blushing contest. Genma and Shino observed the interaction between the two with, somewhat dissimulated grins, finding it quite amusing.

As the morning slowly progressed into noon, however, Genma's expression had turned more thoughtful than amused. He figured Naruto had a pretty good understanding now of the stuff about boys and girls, and most importantly about what happened between them, but that didn't mean he knew anything about relationships. Naruto never had a father or brother who could teach him these things. He also knew that Naruto never had any close friends before and the one he had now (Shino) wasn't all that talkative. Genma-sensei figured that the only one who could help Naruto any further would be himself. He sighed.

It was during lunch that Genma finally decided it was time to bring Hinata and Naruto a bit closer together. As he would be training Naruto in taijutsu one on one after lunch, he would give the kid a little push in the right direction. Since Hinata would be studying from her books and Shino would further practice that new Jutsu he had learned from his father, they could talk without being overheard by them.

So as planned, Naruto and Genma had a friendly spar a few hours later. Genma smoothly started a casual conversation, carefully drifting towards the subject of Hinata...

"So Naruto," Genma said as he blocked another punch from the blond. "What's up with all that blushing this morning? You and Hinata looked like ripe tomatoes having a go at each other."

Naruto blushed brightly in response, once more.

"Yup, exactly like that!" Genma teased the boy.

"Oh shut up!" Naruto responded, embarrassed and accompanied those words with a high roundhouse kick aimed at the left side his teachers face. It was easily blocked.

"Now Naruto, there's no need to get violent." Genma said, clearly amused. Naruto responded that statement with another kick, like the last, to prove his teacher otherwise.

"Why don't you just ask her out?" Genma asked his pupil, none to gently, hoping to get a funny response.

This left Naruto stunned for a moment, allowing Genma to get a simple punch easily through his defence.

"Seems like that got your attention." Genma said, grinning.

"S-shut up! And why would I want to ask her out?" Naruto said, his voice shaky, as he got up.

"Come on, kid. This isn't that difficult! She's fun, cute and … she likes you!" His teacher teased, looking down at Naruto, ruffling his hair.

"That's not po-" Naruto started blushing again, stuttering.

"Everyone knows she likes you. From what I've heard, she's liked you for quite some time now." Genma had learned this during a late night trip to his favourite pub, where he had run in to a drunk academy teacher who told him all about it. Apparently, she thought the two would make a cute couple. Genma couldn't help but agree.

Naruto just kept denying it all, while the blush hidden underneath his face mask invented completely new shades of red.

Genma sighed, enjoying how easy it was to ruffle this kid's feathers.

"I'll make you a deal: If you ask her out, I'll teach you a new jutsu."

Naruto thought some before responding.

"Only...only if it's a really strong one." he muttered, looking quickly at Hinata who was studying with Shino not too far away.

Genma smirked. "Deal."

* * *

Later that day, Naruto just wandered around the village. He just followed his feet, which would eventually take him towards Ichiraku's. The blonde had other things on his mind, though. When Genma had told him he should ask Hinata out, the task didn't seem all that difficult. At first. In the past he had asked out Sakura on numerous dates, but as he pondered on his new assignment he found the prospect of asking out Hinata (of all people) a lot more difficult then he would have thought. His feet stopped after about an hour at their intended destination. 

"Hey Naruto!" A voice called from inside. As he moved inside, he found his old academy teacher Iruka.

"Ah…Iruka-sensei…" Naruto greeted, still in deep-thought mode. Iruka didn't miss the thoughtful frown and greatly less-than-enthusiastic reply from the blonde. It didn't go unnoticed either by Ayame, the old man Ichiraku's daughter who had known Naruto even longer then his academy teacher.

"What's on your mind Naruto?" Iruka asked. "I haven't seen such a thoughtful frown on your face ever since you did your first academy exams."

Instead of a loud retort that Iruka was expecting, Naruto just stared into space. It took several minutes before he spoke.

"Ne...Iruka-sensei? How…how do you ask a girl out?" The kid asked. Seeing his old sensei's incredulous expression he continued. "I mean... the right way. Not like I used to ask Sakura-chan."

Iruka smiled, a knowing look on his face.

"I don't think there was anything wrong with how you asked out Sakura." He said. "It's probably the easiest and best way of asking. I just think you used to ask the wrong person."

Naruto nodded and went back to thinking in silence, something that greatly annoyed Iruka and Ayame, who weren't used to seeing him like this.

"Sooooooo Naruto-kun," Ayame asked teasingly in the hope of getting a reaction out of him. "who's the lucky girl?"

Naruto just blushed but didn't respond. Iruka wasn't about to give up however.

"By the way, Naruto. How's Hinata doing?" He asked.

The increased blushing confirmed his suspicions.

"You really couldn't pick an easy one do you? Going straight for the heir to Konoha's most prestigious clan." Iruka teased.

"It wasn't my idea!" Naruto finally yelled out. "But I have to do it!" He continued determined, as though he was preparing himself mentally for a suicide mission.

Iruka blinked.

"Who told you that you 'have' to ask her out?"

"If I ask her out, then Genma-sensei will teach me a new really strong jutsu." Naruto told him.

Iruka laughed as he understood. Genma had probably seen something between those two and decided to do something about it. Naruto clearly was still a sucker for anything related to the words 'ramen' and 'ninja', ninjutsu marking the top of that list.

"So then just do it!" Iruka said. "Just go to her and ask her if she wants to go out on a date with you."

"It's not that easy!" The blonde retorted.

His former teacher faked a look of surprise.

"You never had problems before asking Sakura out." He said.

"I know! But … it's not the same. It's Hinata you know, not Sakura-chan."

Ayame sniggered behind her hand as Iruka laughed openly. There was no doubt for her any more that Naruto had a thing for the Hyuuga heiress, even if he didn't realize it himself yet. She had also seen the girl here several times during the last few months together with the blonde and his team mates. And judging from the looks she had seen her give the kid, she was absolutely smitten with him. Iruka obviously knew this too.

Meanwhile, Naruto just pouted like a six year old.

"Oy,Oyaji! A bowl of shrimp ramen!" The blonde yelled, ignoring the two others, who just sat and stood there sniggering.

"Sure thing Naruto!" The old man Ichiraku replied.

For the next hour, Naruto rid his mind of dating troubles and focussed his attention on the blissfully simple wonder that is ramen. It did little good, however, for the remainder of that evening and night, as he spent it twisting and turning in his bed, unable to rid his thoughts of the daunting task ahead of him.

The next morning Naruto got up early since he figured he wasn't going to get any more sleep that night. So instead he spent more then an hour in his bathroom freshening up and saying little words of encouragement to himself, in front of the mirror.

"Yeah! You're going to get yourself a date today! Yeah! You know everyone wants you, even if they don't know it yet! Yay..." He tried to convince his image in the mirror.

But no matter how hard he tried, every time he thought about asking Hinata, his confidence dropped to somewhere far beneath his feet ...this was _Hinata, _for crying out loud! She was the Hyuuga heir! What would a girl like her see in him, Uzumaki Naruto? Nevertheless, he did spent the rest of his time making sure he didn't have a spot of dirt on him, because he had already vowed to himself that today was the day he would ask her. And Uzumaki Naruto never went back on his word!

When he finally left the bathroom, it was just past 8AM. He set about cleaning his apartment of rubbish to make sure it looked just as spotless as he himself did. Hinata would be here to pick him up in about an hour as usual and that's when he would ask her.

As 9AM approached, the tension became almost unbearable to Naruto. He just kept shifting stuff on the table, checking himself over for the umpteenth time, repeating the words he had practised over the last few hours until finally a knock sounded at the door. Naruto found it the most frightening sound he had ever heard. With shaking hands Naruto opened to door.

"Good morning Naruto-kun." Hinata greeted as he opened the door.

Naruto found it hard to fight down yet another blush.

"Ah.. Good…morning…yeah…uh…Come in!" He stammered, mentally cringing.

Hinata followed the blonde inside with a little blush of her own, wondering what was going on. This was again very unusual behaviour for Naruto, even more so then yesterday. Now he even stood there in the middle of the living room, scratching the back of his head and staring at the ground, embarrassed.

"…um…Hinata? Do you…um … I mean …wouldyouwannagoonadatewithme?" Naruto said quickly.

Since he spoke so fast it took Hinata a while to register with the words, but once she did she blushed horribly. Not trusting her voice right now, she just nodded shyly.

Naruto let out a deep breath he didn't realize he was holding. He recovered quickly with his trademark grin.

"Great!" He responded. Naruto mentally kicked himself for making such a fool of himself earlier.

'I wonder what kind of jutsu sensei will teach me?' He silently thought to himself as he pulled up his mask to cover his whisker-like face marks.

* * *

A few hours later, Naruto and his team mates where training once more. Hinata was practising with the first stages of the chakra scalpels she learned from her books, Shino was still working on his bug summoning jutsu and Naruto was training with Genma once more. 

"…so I asked her out." The blonde said proudly. "So, when are you going to teach me that new jutsu?"

Now Genma was in a tight spot. He hadn't yet been able to find some jutsu he could teach Naruto (he was also half-expecting Naruto to not have acted upon his promise so early) so he needed to come up with some excuse.

"Didn't I tell you that you have to go on that date, before I teach you?" He asked, acting surprised.

"But you said…!" Naruto started.

"So maybe I forgot." Genma replied somewhat nonchalantly. "By the way; where are you taking her?"

"I don't know yet. It seems a bit wrong to take her to Ichiraku's or something like that, right?"

"Probably, but I don't think she'd really mind."

"But you know …" Naruto started, before being interrupted abruptly by his sensei.

"Hold on a second, Naruto" He said, as he looked up at a screaming eagle, circling above them.

Apparently the eagle brought him some kind of coded message, because as soon as the majestic bird left, he assembled the team.

"I'm being summoned by the Hokage. Hinata and Shino can continue what they were doing. Naruto, you will train your taijutsu on the logs, alright?" He said before taking of at a quick pace.

A few minutes later he arrived at the Hokage's office. As he entered he found not only the Hokage, but also two 4-man ANBU teams and none other than Jiraiya, one of the Legendary trio.

"Genma-san," The old Hokage said. "I'm glad you could make it here so soon. We're just waiting for the last few to arrive and then I'll explain everything."

A few minutes later three more chuunin entered the office. The first two, Genma recognized as Izumo and Kotetsu, the inseparable duo that had accompanied him on several missions in the past. The third he recognized as Tatami Iwashi. He was another young, but skilled chuunin.

"Everyone is here, so I'll begin." The Hokage said. "As most of you should know, the Wind Country is being plagued by several raids of rogue shinobi's. Lately, the number of raids has been increasing and their methods seem to have gotten worse as well. The average number of people killed and injured during a raid has more then doubled. To add to their problems, there has been an assassination attempt on the Kazekage a few days ago. They have requested our assistance to resolve this matter."

Some off the people present wore surprised expressions. Others were just silent, taking in the news without emotion.

"Hagane Kotetsu, Kamizuki Izumo and Tatami Iwashi will join Jiraiya. Your job will be to guard and escort the Kazekage. Shiranui Genma will lead the ANBU teams to investigate the raids. You will leave for the Hidden Sand village two hours from now. If you have no further questions you may leave and prepare."

They all nodded in acceptance and left the office, apart from Genma and Jiraiya.

"Hokage-sama?" Genma questioned. "Why did you select me for this mission? There are others better suited for this mission and I have my students to take care of."

"I know Genma-san." The Hokage nodded, "But many of those qualified are required for other missions. Besides you already have first hand experience in the matter. I'll make sure you're students are well taken care off. Tell them they will meet their temporary instructor here tomorrow morning at 8 AM."

Genma sighed. "Very well, Hokage-sama." He said, before leaving the office together with Jiraiya.

Jiraiya spoke for the first time as they left the building.

"It's hard for you to leave you're students like that, isn't it?" He said.

"Yeah it is." Genma responded. "It's all so sudden. In a few hours I'll be leaving for a B-rank mission, without time limit." Suddenly Genma panicked. "Now I'll have to deal with Naruto."

"What about him?" Jiraiya asked intrigued.

"Uhm…I kinda challenged him. I promised to teach him a stronger technique if he did something and he did it."

"Come on. He's just a kid, he'll get over it in no time." Jiraiya replied lightly.

"Yeah, maybe. It's just that…I don't want to let him down. He's my student, so I'm responsible for him. What kind of teacher am I if I can't even keep my promises too him." Genma said sadly. Jiraiya noticed that there was probably more to it and had a pretty good idea what it was about, but he didn't question the man. Instead, he came up with a great idea.

"Genma, follow me." The old toad summoner said, smiling.

It took them several minutes to reach their destination at the edge of the town. It turned out to be an old apartment block. Genma gave Jiraiya a questioning look.

"Everyone thinks I live in some big mansion." He answered Genma's unasked question as they started climbing the stairs. "I don't know where people get that idea. I only spent a few weeks every year in this village, so it's all I need really. Come in!"

The room was small and contained little furniture, though every piece of it was filled with notes, scrolls and other seemingly useless stuff.

"Now where did I put those…" Jiraiya muttered to himself as he moved around large stacks of papers. "Ah! There they are!"

Jiraiya retrieved a few notebooks and several scrolls from beneath a pile of porn magazines, which he handed to Genma.

"Give him these. That should shut him up." Jiraiya said. Genma didn't really understand, but opened and skimmed trough the stuff. After scanning a few pages, he gasped.

"Jiraiya-sama? Are these…" He questioned awestruck.

"Yeah! Some of the first notes my baka-pupil made back when he was still a little genin. There are a few things in it that Naruto could use but not all of it is useful."

"Hmm, like this one. Why would anyone want to seal fire in a scroll?" He said.

"Baka!" Jiraiya said cheerfully, "That technique is still used by the ANBU!"

Genma felt like a fool for failing to see it's real purpose. He would most likely feel even more stupid for asking, but he asked Jiraiya the question anyway.

"Why?"

Jiraiya sighed. "You don't always have the time to examine something on the scene, so this allows you to seal a flame, and then you're able to study it later, like what technique caused it, it's temperature and so on. A lot of the stuff in there is like that. You don't always see it's usefulness immediately, but in the end they often do have a purpose."

Genma nodded but didn't respond out loud.

"Don't feel stupid for asking kid. You're still a rookie jounin, so there's a lot you don't know yet. Hell, even I learn new things all the time."

Genma nodded once more. "Thanks, Jiraiya-sama."

"No problem. Now let's get to your team. We need to leave in about an hour and a half."

"Sure." Genma replied as he grabbed the stuff and followed the old man outside.

* * *

"WHAT!" Naruto yelled as his teacher tried to explain the situation. "But what about that jutsu you we're going to teach me?" 

"Shut up for a second kid!" Jiraiya yelled from behind Genma.

"Like I said Naruto, these are orders from the Hokage and I cannot refuse. But Jiraiya-sama had something you might like instead." Genma said as he showed him the notebooks and scrolls.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with some stupid books?" Naruto asked irritated.

"Baka!" Jiraiya yelled again.

"Shut up hakutouou (white-haired old man)!"

"Ahou (simpleton)!"

"Oibore (senile old man)!"

Genma and the rest of team 8 sweat dropped as the shouting match continued and the two kept finding new insults to throw at each other. Genma had a hard time trying to interrupt them.

"Naru…Naruto!" Genma yelled in between their shouts to no avail.

In the end he just chose to beat the blonde over the head a few times.

"Ouch! Genma sensei! What did you do that for?"

"To get you both to shut up." He answered, annoyed. "Now Naruto. These notebooks and scrolls contain old notes made by the great Fourth Hokage when he was still a genin. Some of the stuff you'll find inside is unique and couldn't be found anywhere else."

"REALLY?" Naruto cried, before grabbing and opening several of the notes, while trying not to drool all over them.

"Now Naruto. Make sure to share this with you're team mates."

Naruto just gave him a look that clearly said: 'Do I have to?' Genma countered that with a firm look that obviously meant 'Yes, you have to.'

"Alright, but I get to look first." Naruto stated.

"Sure." He sighed. "Don't forget to meet your new teacher tomorrow morning at the Hokage tower, all right?"

"Yes sensei!" Hinata and Naruto chorused. Shino remained as silent as ever, but nodded.

"And Naruto, remember: when my replacement isn't here, Shino is in charge."

"What, but…" Naruto sputtered.

"No buts. You already knew that Shino was going to become the team leader."

Naruto muttered some obscenities under his breath, but finally relented.

And with thatGenma left the village an hour later, accompanied by the rest of the group travelling towards the Hidden Sand village.

* * *

AN: So did you like this? Hate this? Review please! 

Also, my Beta-reader is getting desperate for some kind of recognition by my fans, so please: If you review, remember she's as much a part of this story as I am.

**NEXT: **A little CONTEST!

Interesting aren't they, those notes of the Fourth? (at least I think they are). I call out to all my readers, to come up with idea's for them. The best one will get special recognition AND everyone will be able to read about it in the next chapter already! So start being creative for once! NOTE: Also remember, that these where notes written by the fourth as Konoha Genin, so nothing too strong, and something someone living in Konoha might learn. (So no lightning jutsu, or something like that).

That's it! Also check my new website: www (dot) ffsanctuary (dot) co (dot) nr


	7. Progress

**Story Title:** True Shinobi

**Chapter Title:** Progress **(Not yet Beta-ed!)**

**Author:** Syfes

**Co-Author and Beta Reader:** Ryuu no Taiyo

**Website: **www. ffsanctuary. co. nr

* * *

**First of all, I'd like to say sorry for the huge delays. Life hasn't been kind to me lately, and it doesn't seem to get better anytime soon. I really hope that this extra-long chapter can make up for it somehow. I will promise you now that the next chapter will be posted faster then this one. Mind you, that only means I have to post it somewhere before september. sweatdrops**

**Also, this chapter hasn't been beta-ed since Ryuu mysteriously dropped out of contact for almost a whole week now (or she's too lazy to get up and reply). She did write the last part of this story though. Don't worry, you'll love the piece just as much as I did. Anways, I decided not to keep you guys waiting any longer!**

* * *

Only seconds after Genma left, Naruto dug into the pile of notes and scrolls. Barely minutes later, he had already discarded more than half of them, declaring them useless since they didn't hold any jutsu. They were picked up by Shino who looked trough them just like Naruto had, only to find it's contents a lot more interesting. The quiet Aburame decided that the best course of action right now was to make Naruto understand what these scrolls contained and impress their importance upon him, instead of learning some fancy jutsu. As team leader he would take his responsibility and make sure every member of his team advanced in their training as far as possible. 

Naruto was caught up in his reading as he suddenly noticed a large group of bugs appearing from below the ground, and surrounded the books he had left besides him on the ground. He looked around questioning, looking for his bug-using team mate.

"Hey Shino, what are you …. Oh no you won't!" Naruto yelled.

Shino watched somewhat amused as Naruto tried to make a grab for the notes as his bugs dragged them underground.

"Hey bug-boy! What do you think you're doing?!" Naruto cried, as he tried to dig after Shino's bugs.

"You won't need those for now as you will be studying these." The bug user said as he held up the notes Naruto had left behind earlier.

"But those are boring!" Naruto yelled angrily as he tried to dig deeper into the soil.

"They may be, but right now, these will be more useful to you then those." Shino said calmly as he crouched down, picked up the notes that had resurfaced in front of him and put them somewhere inside his large coat. "First you can learn what's in that scroll you're holding right now. After that you will be studying these."

"And who gives you the right to make decisions for me!?" Naruto exclaimed.

"I'm this team's leader." Shino stated simply. "Genma sensei trusted me with the task of making sure this team progresses as well as possible."

Hinata sat nearby, quietly minding her own business.

'Naruto-kun looks even cuter when he's pouting like that.' She thought to herself, smiling and slightly blushing. 'I wonder where he's going to take me on our date…' The shy Hyuuga girl still couldn't believe he had actually asked her. Just thinking about it, made her tingle inside with excitement. But at the same time, she also felt a familiar touch of insecurity. What if she didn't live up to his expectations?

Naruto, while still in a sour mood, had already immersed himself into the scroll he held. In it he found descriptions of many jutsu the fourth had apparently seen during training and several of his missions. Naruto was amazed at the wealth of information as he found all the hand seals for each jutsu and written below it were ways to counter them. Naruto figured that this probably came from practical experience or information he gathered from others.

_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger)_

_Because of the nature of this jutsu, it's possible to block if you know how to. The jutsu works on the basics of creating a core of chakra and then make it burn, creating a great fireball. However, Sensei told me that if you destabilize the core you can easily block this technique. Because the fireball always has a round shape, the core is in the middle and easy to locate. A simple kunai with exploding tag does the trick. Do keep your guard up because once the core is destabilized, the fireball explodes._

It went on like this for a while, further explaining how to counter the jutsu effectively. Further down he noticed something else was scribbled below the rest that made him laugh out loud.

_Keep your eye on the kunai. It CAN blow back in your face._

About an hour later, Naruto was disappointed when he reached the end of the scroll. It had only contained information on fire jutsu. No matter how dense Naruto could be, he knew that fire jutsu were the most practised ones around Konoha so he figured it made some sense. As he rolled up the scroll, he noticed that Shino and Hinata had also immersed themselves in the scrolls. Looking up towards the sky, he figured it was about 2 PM if the sun wasn't running late.

"Hey guys!" Naruto called out to his team mates. "Shouldn't we go get some lunch? It's already past lunchtime."

"I believe Hinata prepared a lunch for us." Shino replied, to which Hinata gave a small nod of her head.

Naruto sighed as he accepted the already opened bento box and grabbed one of the rice balls. Naruto was looking forward to their new sensei already, hoping Shino would ease up a bit then.

* * *

The first stars were appearing in the slowly darkening sky, when Naruto finished his last scroll on chakra-triggered traps. By now Shino and Hinata had already finished about three scrolls and notebooks each, so they had kept themselves busy with training while Naruto finished his last one of the day. While Naruto still found these scrolls boring, he couldn't deny the usefulness of it's information. One of them had a lot of information on hand seals. It showed the uses of certain hand seals. Further into the scroll he found more information on determining what jutsu an opponent was about to use, by watching the hand seals used for the technique. For example: a tiger seal used in combination with the bird seal, almost always meant a water based jutsu. As he rolled up the scroll he watched how Hinata was slashing at a tree, making shallow cuts into it's bark with her chakra scalpel technique. 

"Who wants to join me for some ramen?" He asked his friends smiling as he walked over to them.

As usual, Hinata responded politely with a "Sure, Naruto-kun" and Shino declined, looking even more distant then he usually does.

* * *

The team headed for the Wind Country had also stopped for the night and set up camp only a few miles from the Fire Country's border. 

"Hey Jiraiya-sama" Genma called to the old sannin. "I understand why I'm sent on this mission, but what I can't really understand is … well … why are we sent on this mission at all."

Jiraiya looked up from the small notebook he was writing in, obviously not understanding what Genma was trying to explain.

"I mean," Genma continued, "Why would the Sand request Konoha's assistance for this. They are one of the more powerful villages themselves."

Jiraiya answered while continuing to write.

"The Sand never asked for our assistance. It was an offer made by Sarutobi himself, to please the Sand. You see, the Sand is the only great Hidden Village Konoha has a true alliance with. The other alliance treaties the Leaf has are with smaller villages and the Hidden Mist. The last doesn't mean much though since it was basically forced upon them during their great civil wars. Now the problem is that all these treaties expire someday, and the alliance agreement the Leaf has with the Sand is about to end. Normally a new alliance treaty would have been agreed upon by now, but for some reason they haven't signed the new treaty the Leaf sent them. Sarutobi has reasons to be concerned.

"So we are sucking up to the Sand?" Genma asked bluntly.

Jiraiya nodded.

"That's basically what it means."

* * *

Naruto and Hinata meanwhile enjoyed their meals at Ichiraku's ramen stand. The atmosphere was a bit tense as neither of them had said much yet. This was largely due to the old man Ichiraku's daughter Ayame, who had teasingly declared them as "such a cute couple!". Every single time Naruto or Hinata tried to strike up the conversation, they would lock eyes and simply look away from the other blushing. In the end Teuchi (Old man Ichiraku's real name) took pity on them and tried to steer their attention elsewhere. 

"Where's your other team mate anyways? Doesn't he usually come with you guys?" He asked.

"No idea." Naruto replied carelessly. "I guess he just went home already."

Hinata nodded along half-heartedly. When they left the training grounds, Shino had been walking in the opposite direction of the village. But then again, he might just have left something behind, and returned already.

* * *

Naruto was quite a while from their usual training grounds, but still inside the designated area for combat training. He was almost certain that Shino didn't go home. So after his meal with Hinata, he came back to try and figure out what was wrong. 

"Shino? What are you doing out here so late?" Naruto called out annoyed as he spotted the lone figure of his team mate trough the darkness.

It took a few seconds before the Aburame made a move, but still he responded quietly.

"Thinking." He said.

"About what?" Naruto asked as he approached his team mate.

"Why should there be anything out of the ordinary?"

"Because," Naruto responded. "People don't just hang around outside on a cold night, in the middle of nowhere and past midnight, just to think about 'stuff'."

Shino remained quiet and for the next few minutes. Naruto felt somewhat uneasy. With that long coat and cold attitude, Shino was definitely a lot scarier in the dark...

"What's that?" He asked after a while, pointing at some weirdly cut stone structure.

"It's a memorial..." Shino replied. "For the deceased shinobi of Konoha."

As his eyes started to adjust to the starlight, he could make out writing on one of the stone's surfaces. He went closer to try and read some of them. It was only then that Naruto realized why Shino must be here.

"So you're here for one of these people?" Naruto asked.

"Hai..." Shino responded as he traced one of the names. Naruto could barely read it: _"Aburame Daiki"_

"Who was he?" Naruto asked quietly.

Another short silence fell over the pair once more.

"He was my brother. Killed in action, 6 years ago..." Shino sighed.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Naruto asked carefully. Shino held back for a few seconds, before he nodded slightly.

"Six years ago, my brother was sent on a simple escort mission for a merchant. At that time the supply routes to the water country were relatively unprotected and so he had to hire shinobi to protect himself against thieves and the like. As would be expected, it was C-ranked mission and it had been assigned to my brothers team. They, like us, were only genin at that time..."

"As expected they did run into some small troublemakers, but nothing any genin shouldn't be able to handle. My brother was careless and foolishly overconfident... A lucky arrow from one of the thieves got him. It went trough his spine and into his heart. He died in a matter of minutes..."

Naruto had no idea what to say, startled as he thought he saw small tears glistening below his friend's dark sunglasses.

"I guess it's true what they say: Most shinobi don't die in big battles. They get killed in the most simple and surprising ways..." Shino's voice didn't reveal any of the weakness expected from a would be silently crying 13 year old. Instead it sounded hard and emotionless.

"You were angry with me earlier for interfering with your training, weren't you?" Shino went on, not waiting for an answer. "You have to realize that I can not allow you to continue with this happy-go-lucky attitude of yours, when I have the chance of changing that. Hinata as well will have to step up her training."

"Now hold on a minute, were not yet..." Naruto tried to interrupt.

"It doesn't matter if were still genin. We are now Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. We swore to protect it with everything we could, so we do just that: train as hard as we can, and defend the village as it's soldiers. If you don't give it everything you got, you'll fail the village and lose your life in the process."

"But..." Words failed the blonde genin, as Shino stood up.

"Naruto," Shino looked him straight in the eye. "I don't want to lose another person that important to me. Do you understand that?"

Naruto didn't know what to say, as Shino quickly turned around and disappeared into the dark woods.

* * *

Naruto's brain was one big whirlwind of thoughts and emotions as he walked back to his apartment with his eyes open, but not seeing at all. Perhaps inevitably he ran into someone. 

"Oomph!" The voices sounded as they both fell to the ground.

"Iruka sensei!" Naruto exclaimed. "Sorry, I wasn't really watching."

"I guess that makes two of us." Iruka replied sheepishly.

"Yeah, I guess it does." Naruto replied with a silly grin as he scratched the top of his head.

"I'm surprised you're still awake at this hour, Naruto. Didn't you have training today?"

"Yeah we did, but all we did was read a whole day so I'm not really tired... well anyway I'm headed home now." Naruto smiled, but Iruka noticed it didn't reach his ears like it usually did.

"So what's bothering you?" Iruka asked.

"Nothing, really." Naruto replied a bit too quickly.

"Don't even try kid. I know you better then that." Iruka smirked.

Naruto sighed as his fake smile faded from his face, instead coming to rest in a frustrated expression.

"I don't know... first I was angry with Shino because he's acting so high and mighty, and now he goes and say things about not wanting to lose me like he lost his brother. I mean... I can't be pissed after that, can I?"

"It's often easier to just stay angry with someone and not really having to think about it, isn't it?"

"Maybe..." Naruto answered quietly.

"So tell me what happened, because I'm not really following here." Iruka smiled slightly.

"Earlier we got these notes to study from Genma sensei, so I picked out the ones I wanted to see first. But then Shino goes and tell me I need to read the other ones first, because he thinks I need those more. So well... I was a bit pissed, right? I mean he wouldn't even let us go have something good for lunch. Thank god Hinata brought some good food, because he would've starved us to death!"

Iruka snorted into his hand as he heard Naruto talk. He would never admit it, but he missed the antics of the blonde in his classroom.

"But then now, I found him at some memorial stone. He told me how his brother died and that because of that he had to make us study harder because he didn't want us to die like his brother. I mean... I'm just so confused!"

"I remember Shino when he just entered the academy." Iruka said, turning a bit more serious. "He was a nice kid, a bit quiet, but then again all the Aburame clan members are. That's until his brother died. Shino completely locked himself away from everyone. I guess he was afraid of getting so close to someone else, out of fear of losing that person as well."

"But I don't get it. He's saying that we don't take our job seriously, but I know I do! So does Hinata! So why does he go and say stuff like that?"

"I know that Naruto, but Shino is just scared right now. I think that for the first time he has allowed someone to get close to him, like his brother. You and Hinata are very important to him, and he probably wants to make sure that what happened to Daiki never happens to you guys."

Naruto went silent as he needed some time to think this stuff over. His sensei was right: now that he couldn't be angry, he was forced to think about this stuff.

"So what do I do now?" Naruto asked a while later as the two approached his appartement.

"You show Shino that you're not a little kid anymore and take this stuff seriously. So basically..."

"...grow up?" Naruto finished for him.

"Yeah, maybe..." Iruka replied.

* * *

After visiting the Hokage tower the next morning, team 8 was walking towards their new sensei's meeting place. It wasn't far from the Hokage tower, so even at a comfortable walking speed they reached it within 10 minutes. 

"Is this the place?" Naruto asked as they arrived at a small traditional bridge. "I don't see him."

"It's still a few minutes until we're supposed to meet him." Hinata answered.

"Yeah, I guess." Naruto said as he plopped down against a nearby tree and opened one of the notebooks from the day before.

"Ano... Naruto-kun, our new teacher could be here any moment. Why start reading now?" Hinata timidly asked her blonde team mate.

"Huh? I just want to finish these ones so I can get to the good stuff." Naruto said, only looking up from his notebook for a quick glance at his female team mate.

"Oh, okay." She said and followed his example by settling herself next to him and opening one of the others from the pile Naruto had dropped on the ground.

Apparently it seemed like the right thing to do, as they saw hide nor hair from their replacement teacher for more than two hours. By now, Hinata and Naruto had finished their lecture and joined Shino who silently stood on top of the bridge, leaning against the banister.

"Someone's coming." Shino suddenly said.

"Is it our teacher?" Hinata asked.

"No, there's three of them and they're about our age." He replied.

"And a dog too." Naruto said as he heard barking coming from the same direction. It didn't take him long to figure out who they must be. "It's Sasuke's team."

Shino confirmed that with a nod of his head.

It didn't take long for Kiba and Akamaru to smell their presence on the bridge.

"Hey Sasuke," Kiba called, loud enough for team 8 to hear him, "It's the dobe's team!"

Naruto knew that the Inuzuka was just trying to tease him like he always did, but then again Naruto wouldn't take an insult like that lying down. Though suddenly he remembered what he had talked about with his old teacher. Shino looked questioningly at his blond team mate, as Naruto calmly reached down to retrieve another scroll from his bag.

When team 5 came into view, the first thing they saw was a grinning Kiba running ahead of the others. Sasuke looked slightly interested and Sakura was trailing behind the Uchiha like some puppy as usual.

Naruto tried to play his new role as well as possible, so with the exception of a small flicker of his eyes in their direction, he didn't exactly acknowledge them and kept reading.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Sakura asked.

"We are waiting for our replacement teacher. He's running a bit late." Hinata answered the pink haired Kunoichi.

"You're waiting for Kakashi-sensei? Where's your normal teacher?" Sakura asked interestedly.

"He's on a mission assignment for an extended period to the Wind Country."

"Heh, that's pretty cool. You guys must have a great teacher then." Sakura said, somewhat disappointed. "Kakashi sensei is always late and he reads these weird red books all the time."

Hinata just smiled. Meanwhile Kiba was trying to get a look at Naruto's scroll.

"Hey, anything interesting in there?" He asked Naruto. The blonde nodded, but moved the scroll so that Kiba couldn't read the scroll from his position besides Naruto, forcing him to move to Naruto's other side.

"Aww, come on blondie! I just wanna know what your reading." Kiba whined as Naruto repeated this process several times.

"It's pretty simple stuff. The first part of the scroll just explains the universal sealing methods for fire." Naruto spoke almost lazily in a kind of all knowing manner. "The rest is just about how you can make the seals more effective by first determining the air conditions, the fuel used, ignition source, etcetera, etcetera,… Kinda boring actually."

Kiba scrunched up his nose an replied with an unintelligent "Huh?". Naruto didn't fare much better to be honest, he just read the whole thing straight from the scroll but he figured the Inuzuka didn't need to know that.

"If you want, I can lend it to you for a while. I'm just re-reading the whole thing to kill time." Naruto offered in his most sincerest voice, already knowing Kiba would not accept it.

"No thanks." Kiba just grumbled and went to stand with Sasuke. Naruto was smiling broadly behind his mask.

'If I wasn't a Shinobi already, maybe I should have thought about becoming an actor.' He thought to himself, enjoying the satisfaction he got out of his newly found persona.

Out of the corners of his eyes he noticed Shino looking at him with some kind of mild respect… Or that's what Naruto thought it was anyways. Stealing a glance over at the other team nearby, he now saw how Kiba and Sasuke were talking in somewhat hushed tones. They almost looked like they were best friends. This surprised Naruto, as he clearly remembered how Kiba had talked about the Uchiha less than two weeks before. When Sasuke noticed him looking he just scowled like he always did, but Naruto did notice the apparent lack of anger he had expected. He did beat the guy up pretty badly, as the patch on his face still showed.

Suddenly, Naruto's team was startled by the sudden appearance of a person behind them and who now stood lazily on top of the banister. The guy was reading from a small red book and had his left eye covered by his forehead protector.

"Yo!" The weird guy greeted them.

"YOUR LATE!" Kiba and Sakura yelled.

"Well, there was this blind guy walking down the shopping street without walking stick. So I went to a shop to buy him one, but the owner didn't…" He was able to get out this much before being interrupted.

"LIAR!" The two yelled again.

"Hey don't say that…." The jounin said, not really putting any effort into making his team believe him. "Anyway team 5, you have a mission today. You're to retrieve Tora-chan, the cat of Lady Shijimi... better known as the daimyou's wife."

"Again?" Sakura whined. Kiba didn't say anything, but looked anything but happy. Actually he looked like there was nothing he'd rather do then violently murder this poor feline.

"Here is the scroll containing mission details." Kakashi said as he handed Sasuke a scroll with a big 'D' written on it. "I won't be joining you today, since I have other things to take care of. You can take the rest of the day of when you have completed your mission."

After reading the scroll, team 5 slouched off towards the last known location of the little creature.

"So you guys are team 8 right?" The Jounin asked the remaining 3 genin. They nodded as he continued. "I'm Hatake Kakashi who will be taking care of you guys for a while, so today I'm going to test your capabilities. Meet me at training ground 7 with all your equipment in 1 hour."

* * *

It apparently took Kakashi more then 2 hours to reach the training ground, much to the annoyance of the team. Meanwhile Naruto had almost finished his second scroll of that day. 

'Interesting…' Kakashi thought as he recognized the scroll Naruto was reading. 'I wonder how they got a hold of those notes. If they have been reading those, I might actually have some fun today.'

"Okay, listen up kids. You're to take these from me within 1 hour." The jounin said as he held up two small bells and set a timer. "Whoever gets one, wins. Those who lose wont receive any further training from me."

Here he waited for a few second to let the information sink in before continuing. " I suggest you come at me with the intention to kill if you ever want to get a chance at one of these bells."

The team nodded as Naruto took out a single shuriken.

"You may begin." Kakashi declared as he pushed the button on the timer starting it.

Naruto threw his shuriken at the jounin and multiplied it by using the Shuriken Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu. While Kakashi dealt with the rain of shuriken, Naruto threw a small smoke bomb right on front of him and his team. When the smoke cleared seconds later, the three genin were gone.

Kakashi could clearly sense the three genin though, as the team moved as one through the forest surrounding him. 'Their retreat was perfect, but they lack stealth.' Kakashi thought to himself. He swiftly followed them from a distance with practised ease. A minute later he noticed that they had stopped for a moment and after sensing a large flare of chakra, the three apparently split up.

Actually the three genin hadn't split up, but had decided to first evaluate the situation properly and let Kakashi chase three of Naruto's Shadow clones.

"So Shino," Naruto whispered. "how are we going to do this?"

"I've heard from this guy before from senior clan members. He's known as the Copy Ninja Kakashi and is one of Konoha's top Jounin." Shino said as his two team mates audibly gulped.

"He has to have a weakness though." Naruto said unsure. "No-one is perfect."

"He only has one eye," Hinata added, "so he would have a harder time judging distances."

"Perhaps." Shino said. "You have to remember though that he's come a long way. He will have covered that particular weakness, since it's so obvious."

"How would he do that?" Naruto asked.

"Most likely by training the other senses. This means we will have to be careful to move without letting him hear or smell us." The bug users said.

"...?" Naruto apparently didn't know how to handle the situation.

"By making sure the wind doesn't carry our sounds and smell towards him when." Shino sighed.

"And when we are close enough…" Naruto exclaimed, finally understanding. "I can use the Hidden Mist technique. He'll be at a serious disadvantage then."

Shino nodded.

"We'll be able to beat him easily then, right Hinata?" Naruto said happily, mostly trying to convince himself.

"Don't be stupid Naruto!" Shino chastised. "His skills are far above ours. Even if we take away those advantages, he'll still be a very strong opponent."

"Then how are we going to do this?" Naruto asked frustrated. "You two can't see or hear properly in the mist either. If what you say is true then what's the point, because I'm not going to be able to do this one my own."

"You'll have to guide us trough it then. We'll be attacking him simultaneously in the mist."

Naruto wasn't convinced this would work but didn't argue. Suddenly he was startled by a feeling. One he recognized as the disappearing of one of his bunshin.

"He's over there. He defeated one of my bunshin." Naruto said, pointing behind Shino.

"How far?" Shino whispered urgently.

"About a mile, maybe a bit more." The blonde answered.

"Then we need to move now. Follow me and stay as quiet as possible." Shino ordered as he swiftly disappeared into the thick foliage of the trees. 'So he's northeast of here and the wind is coming from the northwest.' Shino thought as he quickly analyzed the situation. 'So we need to move around him and approach him from the southeast.'

"Naruto." He whispered. "Where are your other two shadow clones?"

"No idea." The blonde responded, only slightly louder then Shino. "My bunshin have a will of their own remember? They think for themselves."

"Then how were you able to know where Kakashi beat your shadow clone?" Shino asked him.

"I guess it always happens when they disappear… I never thought about it before. When they are dispelled, I know what they know."

"I see. Then dispel them since they aren't useful anymore." Shino responded.

"Sure." Naruto responded, using a quick one handed seal to do as he was asked.

They never noticed someone high above them in the treetops, watching them leave.

"So the shadow clone technique must be the one he learned from the forbidden scroll and used it to defeat Mizuki. But they actually thought I wouldn't notice such a large chakra consuming jutsu?" Kakashi mused as he started following their trail. Occasionally he could heard the sounds of voices and branches being swept aside.

"And they call this moving with stealth?" Kakashi sweat dropped.

* * *

"So it was around here that your clone was defeated?" Shino asked and Naruto nodded. "Then we'll spread out, using our current position as reference. Make sure not to move more than 75 meters from this position. Once one of us sees him, that person can alert the others. None of us can handle him alone." 

"Hai!" Hinata responded and with that they moved in different directions.

From a distance, Kakashi still observed the three genin.

"Not a bad tactic, but let's see what happens if I do this." Kakashi said as he formed a single hand seal.

Only seconds later, the tree genin saw Kakashi jumping down from a tree and moving into a small clearing. It didn't take them long to act as they all rushed in, Naruto in the lead.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled as a cloud of mist covered the area. Shino and Hinata swiftly moved inside the cloud.

"Hinata: 8 meters 7o'clock , Shino: 11 meters 3o'clock!" Naruto yelled and his two team mates responded quickly.

The three moved in simultaneously. Naruto sent a punch towards Kakashi's face, Hinata prepared for a Jyuuken strike to his shoulder and Shino tried to tackle his legs.

Thing didn't go exactly as planned though as Naruto's strike went right through the jounin's head, hitting Hinata's face. Hinata's Jyuuken strike went trough their opponent as well and hit Shino's chest, while Shino's foot collided hard with Naruto's knee.

Outside the cloud, Kakashi heard them cry out in pain from the damage they inflicted on each other. He slowly massaged his temples.

'They can't even recognize a low level bunshin?' He sighed as angry voices made their way through the mist.

"Naruto-kun, that hurt!" Hinata yelled holding a hand to her bleeding nose.

"Shino you bastard! You almost broke my leg!" Naruto cried out.

"Quiet! You two are giving our position away!" The bugs user chastised.

Kakashi sighed as ha took out a few kunai and threw them lazily at the bickering genin.

"Scatter!" Naruto yelled moments before several kunai planted themselves at their feet. The three moved away swiftly in different directions.

Kakashi still sat in the same position overlooking the whole mess.

"So that's the technique he used to defeat Sasuke." Kakashi mused. "Can't blame the boy for freaking out after what happened in the Wave Country. If he had thought clearly he should've known that Naruto could never produce a cloud as big as Zabuza and that he could have easily moved outside of the jutsu… ah well. I suppose he's figured that out now with the help of Kiba, who saw the whole thing."

Kakashi now also noticed the three genin moving further away from each other. "Although they know they can't defeat me without working together, they don't seem to have settled on a meeting spot. Well, no time like the present to find out what Genma has been teaching these kids, because in all those months he has to have taught them something usefull."

* * *

A few minutes after being separated from his team mates, Naruto leaned against a tree panting. 

'This sucks. I'll never be able to find the others on my own… wait a second!' "Tajuu Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled as he created dozens of clones. "Spread out and find the others! Dispel yourself when you find them Kakashi or anything else significant, so I know where they all are."

"Right!" They all yelled before dispersing.

"And now I just have to sit and wait." Naruto smiled broadly, congratulating himself with his great idea. It apparently only took a few seconds for one of his clones to dispel itself.

"One of the bells!? He dropped one! Yatta!" Naruto cried out loud as he rushed towards the spot. Right there in the middle of the clearing was one of the bells, reflecting what little sunlight it caught in the shade of a nearby tree. Naruto didn't think as he confidently walked towards it.

As he reached out to grab it, his feet were suddenly jerked upwards and logically the rest of his body followed. This left him hanging upside down from one of the tree's branches, his fingertips just inches out of reach to grab the bells.

"You should know to only use your techniques after thinking the situation trough carefully." Kakashi spoke. "With even the slightest bit of experience, you should've been able to recognize that bunshin for what it was immediately. Because you didn't, it immediately became your disadvantage!"

The jounin lazily bent down to pick up the bell. "And one other thing…" Kakashi said as he juggled the bell around in his hand. "Don't fall for such an obvious trap, baka. As a ninja, you need to learn to see underneath the underneath."

"I know that." Naruto responded calmly.

"No you don't. That's exactly why I'm telling you this." Kakashi responded.

Only seconds after the one-eyed jounin spoke these words, he was apparently caught of guard by several kunai and shuriken. Naruto smirked as bent his body upwards to cut loose the rope around his feet and moments later landed gracefully on both feet smirking. Only then he noticed a log where Kakashi should have been.

'Kawarimi no Jutsu? Then where is….' Naruto's thought where cut short as he was once again swung into the air by means of another rope around his ankles.

"Stupid, (enter censored words here), double layered traps…" Naruto muttered as he heard laughing and a small 'poof' coming from his right side, where Kakashi sat on a tree branch mocking him before turning his back on the genin.

"Even when I'm in a position like this," Naruto whispered to himself smirking and quickly grabbing a few shuriken from his pouch, "You shouldn't let your guard down."

"Shuriken Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu! Shuriken Hinome Sorasu no Jutsu!" The blonde yelled as he threw the shuriken and quickly went trough a set of seals. Not waiting to watch if his weapons hit their intended target, he cut himself loose again and pushed his feet against the trunk of the tree to jump away from it. He wouldn't allow himself to be caught like that a third time.

While Naruto did that, Kakashi dodged the incoming projectiles easily and landed in the open clearing, facing and challenging the newly freed Naruto.

'Damn' Naruto thought to himself, no longer smirking. 'This isn't good. I'm no match for this guy on my own. How am I going to…' Just then Naruto received more information from one of his bunshin. He now knew Hinata was heading in his direction, since his Shadow clone had been smart enough to inform the girl of his position. 'If I can hold him off long enough for Hinata to get here, maybe we can stand a chance.'

Kakashi watched his new student interestedly. The kid was apparently going to try and take him out on his own. He'd let Naruto make the first move.

Meanwhile, Naruto was thinking over his options. He could either charge the guy and try to keep his opponent on defence. Or he could wait for the jounin to make the first move and try to fend him of as long as possible. He decided on the first.

'If I try to defend myself against him, I wont last long so instead I should try to control the situation instead.' And with those thoughts Naruto charged the jounin.

"Suiton: Teppoudama!" Naruto yelled as he spit several water bullets at his opponent and at the same time moved towards him. Kakashi was easily able to dodge Naruto's jutsu and prepared for the blonde's first strike.

Following his rain of water bullets, Naruto tried to hit his new teacher with a low kick. The key word being 'tried' since the jounin easily blocked his kick with what looked like a simple move.

'Damn!' Naruto yelled inside his head. 'Even when dodging all those bullets, he is still able to keep his guard up!' Naruto continued to engage him, using shuriken to distract his opponent. It didn't seem to help the now frustrated genin one bit, as his clearly superior opponent always managed to dodge and block his moves at the same time. This went on for some time as the two traded kicks and punches and eventually Naruto realized he had to back off.

'This isn't going to work.' Naruto thought to himself, as he felt the increasingly painful throbbing in his knee. Out of frustration Naruto rashly sped forwards and kicked out once more. Only this time, Naruto instinctively knew there was more power behind in than he would've normally been able to muster. It felt... weird...and yet it felt right all the same. Naruto couldn't understand.

To add to his moment of confusion, Kakashi didn't just block this time, but struck Naruto's already painful knee with a quick and hard palm strike. Naruto didn't utter a sound as something in his leg made a cracking noise, but quickly backed off again. Using his uninjured leg, he jumped away as far as he safely could to increase the distance.

As Naruto briefly considered his options, he noticed Kakashi staring at him intently.

"Pretty impressive for a rookie genin, but it seems you've reached your limit." Kakashi said, regaining his usual carefree attitude.

Naruto didn't answer the taunt with words, but instead opted for throwing a few shuriken and kunai towards his opponent. Unfortunately, Kakashi easily countered them with a few kunai of his own, who after deflecting Naruto's projectiles continued on their path straight towards the blonde.

'Damn, I can't dodge those right now. Got to focus my chakra!….' "Suiton: Suijinheki!" Naruto yelled as he desperately tried to condense what little water he could from the air surrounding him and used it to form a thin wall of water around him. It barely deflected the kunai, but it did it's job as not one made it through. 'Thank Kami-sama! Shino knows where I am. And Hinata should be arriving here right about….now!'

Hinata's arrival was announced by a set of almost a dozen small fireballs making their way towards Kakashi from the depths of the forest.

The one-eyed jounin never batted an eye as he easily dodged them. 'Katon Jutsu?'

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Hinata yelled as she emerged from the woods and fired the largest ball of fire from her mouth that she could possibly manage. This time Kakashi didn't have time to watch his opponents as he dodged the Hyuuga's attack. When the momentarily surprised jounin regained his footing, he noticed that his two subjects had fled the scene. Like any sane ninja would, he left the open space and instead opted for the cover that the forest provided him. Not that it really mattered, as only seconds later, the loud bell of the alarm clock sounded in the distance.

The sound was accompanied by a loud voice.

"No way! Already!?" Kakashi heard Naruto yell.

As he lazily made his way back into the clearing, he was quickly joined by his two opponents who apparently never made it far. Naruto was leaning heavily on Hinata's shoulder, who looked exhausted as well. As she carefully helped Naruto get seated on the ground, they were soon joined by Shino.

Kakashi sighed as he surveyed the three disheveled genin.

"Well, I have to say... some of your jutsu were quite impressive." He said honestly. "But that's it basically... That's all you guys are good at. Right from when we started, I clearly saw that you guys had never been trained in stealth and you almost have no real life combat experience."

Here he paused for a second, while the three genin just sat there defeated. Hinata was now taking a look at the blonde's knee.

"I did see a clear effort in team work as well, but you three have to learn how to deal with that in real life situations. Right now, it was quite easy for me to split you three apart. Naruto, you used those Kage-Bunshin to look for your team mates?"

"Yeah..." The pained voice sounded. Now the adrenaline rush that accompanied the battle had disappeared, the pain in his knee seemed to have tripled. "I realized that when they disappear, I know what they know. So that way I could see where the others where and they could know where I was."

Kakashi smiled at his explanation. "Impressive tactic. I'm sure that if you had an hour more, your technique would've made a great difference." This did bring a smile to Naruto's face, albeit a pained one. "But you're time ran out and you failed your mission. That's a part of real life as well."

By now, Shino was the only one still brooding, since Naruto's spirits had been lifted somewhat and Hinata was too busy trying to fix the blonde's knee.

"Normally, I had hoped to start training today but it seems that with Mr. Loudmouth's injury that's become a bit difficult. Instead I want you all to think about what happened today and talk about it together..." Here the jounin was interrupted by the small and suppressed cry of pain coming from Naruto. "But first of all, let's get blondie here to the hospital." He finished.

* * *

Kakashi left soon after they had arrived at the hospital, saying he had some stuff to take care of. He now sat on some rooftop, overlooking the whole village. 

'You overreacted there.' Kakashi thought angrily to himself. 'You were only supposed to fend him of, not strike back and injure them!... But that chakra I felt there for a moment, there's no doubt it was the Kyuubi's...'

* * *

Far away from all of this, in a small dimly lit room lay a young man covered in seals and connected to several obscure machines. 

"Kabuto," A sinister voice called out from the shadows, "How much longer can you keep him alive?"

"It's hard to tell, Orochimaru-sama." The young man with round glasses responded respectfully, yet his voice sounded cold and hard. "The disease has spread significantly since he activated the second level of his curse seal. It drained whatever energy his body used for its immune system. From this point on it will keep deteriorating his body and all I can do is slow it down. If I keep him in partial stasis like this, he should last for … at least another year. Without it, it would be a matter of weeks, maybe even days." Kabuto never turned around to look his master in the eyes. Instead it seemed that he was more interested in his instruments and even the damp and muddy walls of the obscure chamber.

"His timing couldn't have been worse." The snake sannin spoke annoyed as he stepped into the light, his slitted eyes coldly observing the patient. "With Kimimaro besides us we might have been able to take down the Kazekage unnoticed."

"Perhaps, but with the added protection we encountered, it wouldn't have been easy. If only those cloud shinobi hadn't been messing around there, there wouldn't have been as much security and it would have been so much easier."

"Perhaps... perhaps not. Because of our disguises they'll write it off as yet another move from that rebellious clan from the cloud against them."

"I see." Kabuto replied, still diverting his eyes from the snake like man.

"Actually Kabuto, I think that in the end this may work in our favour." Orochimaru said in a sort of cold, yet calculating manner, while tenderly stroking Kimimaro's head. "If the sand decides to take actions against the cloud... Konoha, as sworn allies of the sand will have no choice but to send in their own forces and get involved as well."

"But even then Konoha will still remain a strong force to be reckoned with though. With only the sound under our command, it'll still be too much for only our own forces. Perhaps you should try to take the place of one of the other kage's?"

Orochimaru's eyes darkened as he finally looked his subordinate in the eye.

"No that won't work. Even I have to admit that the Raikage is too strong for us too be able to take him down silently. The Rock country still has loads of former Konoha-spies as a result from the last war and the Mizukage... well," Orochimaru smirked, "he is barely able to hold control over his own forces. No, instead we will start by allying our own sound village with some of the smaller and power-hungry shinobi countries."

"Then I guess that our plan's in Konoha will not proceed for now, Orochimaru-sama?"

"Maybe not all of them, but I still want you to test the last Uchiha's skills. This pathetic new body of mine is wearing out already and will not last much more than two years."

"Very well, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto replied.

* * *

Hinata found her fingers shaking nervously. Shifting uncomfortably, she placed her hands together in front of her mouth; if her eyes had been closed, a passerby might have thought she was praying. 

She was wearing one of the nicer, casual outfits she'd bought when she and Naruto had gone clothes shopping with a boy. She smiled, looking down at her pale blue shirt with a small floral pattern on the hem. Naruto-kun had liked it.

She had a few minutes before she left to pick up Naruto. She smiled nervously. Normally, the boy would pick up the girl on a date. But this wasn't an ordinary date: this was Naruto-kun she was thinking about! And a Naruto-kun who was hurt, too.

She knew her father was in his office down the hall, and if she was quiet enough he would ignore her and let her leave unnoticed. Like any young girl, she just wasn't in the mood to talk with her father…Hinata bit her lip. Such actions were unbecoming for one daughter of the Head of the Clan…

She decided to leave her room and walked down the hall in the quietest manner she could.

"Hinata."

She froze.

"Come in Hinata, for a moment."

So businesslike and cold, just like usual. Hinata found herself holding her hands so to not let her father see them shake.

Would he not let her go? She had little doubt in her mind that he knew something about her date. He was her father: he seemed to know everything!

She walked into her father's simple, traditionally furnished office and bowed respectfully.

"Yes, father?"

"I assume you are going to see the Uzumaki boy?"

Hinata's heart fell. He wasn't going to let her go. Not if he was using that tone of voice…

She nodded. She could never lie to her father.

"Hinata, please sit."

Was he going to lecture her? She was apprehensive, but rather curious at the way his voice softened. His eyes even seemed less cold. She sat in front of him, on the opposite side of his desk.

"While you have shown me your true strength in these last few weeks, daughter, you have the blessing of certain qualities that are unfitting with the traditional image of the Hyuuga clan."

Hinata raised her eyes suddenly, wondering what he could be talking about.

"Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to take away these qualities from you. And no one will ever be able to strip you of them: they are your gift, your character and your strength. Yet…no matter how valuable compassion and sincerity is to you, these are not the qualities befitting the Heir of this clan."

She blinked, feeling somewhat hurt and confused at the backhanded compliment.

"Father, what do you wish to tell me?" she asked in the softest voice.

Hiashi sighed.

"You will never be fit to lead this clan, Hinata. As such, I allow you to see this Uzumaki boy. You may leave."

Hinata let out a deep breathe. The fact that her sister was replacing her, oh, she knew that already, for a long time…She got up, her heart heavy, and bowed.

"Thank you." She said, her voice empty.

As she almost went through the door, Hinata heard her father call out again.

"Hinata, make sure he treats you well."

"Yes, father." She answers, turning around and bowing one last time before literally fleeing his office.

Hiashi sighed sadly, somewhat ashamed at his own clan and what he had to do to his own daughters…

**

* * *

**

"Hey Hinata! What's wrong? Why the long face?" called out Naruto as he opened the door of his small apartment.

"Hello. And nothing is wrong, Naruto-kun, thank you." She smiled slightly as she walked in. Despite how sad she'd felt on her way here, now that she saw his smile, she couldn't help but feel cheerful again. Naruto-kun's crazy grin was infectious.

"So, There-Is-Nothing-Wrong-With-Hinata-Hime, shall we be off tonight?" Naruto asked in the most gallant manner a clumsy kid could, but unfortunately he fell off-balance, his broken leg unable to support his silly movements.

Despite a very red face out of embarrassment, Hinata worriedly called out; "Naruto-kun, are you okay?"

"Eh, I'm fine. Really. Let's go."

She helped him up, and without letting go of her hand Naruto stood up and smiled at her. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

"You have to use the crutch they gave you at the hospital, or else you could get hurt, Naruto-kun!" the worry shone through her pale eyes and Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Do I have to? I feel great!"

"Please?"

"Arg." Naruto groaned, "…fine."

He walked towards the his couch, where the stupid wooden crutch was resting, and returned to the entrance. "Happy now?" he grumbled.

Hinata bit her lip. Was he angry with her?

"I…I'm sorry." She mumbled, looking down.

Suddenly, Naruto realized that something had to be wrong, no matter how fine she said she was. He realized that he really didn't know what to do to cheer her up.

"Don't be sorry…why are you sorry? I did something stupid today, and now I'm just a bit grumpy. It's really not your fault!"

She didn't answer.

Naruto bit his lip.

"Uh…" he realized how badly he'd messed this up. This was supposed to be a date! You know, really stomach-lurching cheesiness and bad teenage romance and all that weird lovey-dovey stuff…and was Hinata crying?

"I'm sorry Naruto. If you want…we could do this…another day…later?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "No, it's okay! Today is good! Hinata, I _want _to go out with you today. Now, like, yeah…Hinata? Don't cry…" he asked her softly.

"I'm really messing this up, Naruto-kun." She whispered.

He bit the inside of his cheek.

"Don't cry, Hinata-chan…"

She nodded, trying to smile. "I'm being so stupid."

"Nah. The only stupid one here is me, 'cuz I broke my stupid kneecap. Com'on, let's go have fun! We own this town!" To his incredible relief, she giggled, wiping the tears away. Naruto felt immensely better.

"Alright, let's go. And be careful, okay Naruto-kun?"

"I will be! Sheesh, you little worry bug!" he teased her, smiling gently. "Everything will be fine, I promise!"

Smiling, she answered him. "I believe you."

"Good." He smiled back. Opening the door, he sort of limped out of his apartment on his crutch, and Hinata followed, closing the door behind him. He locked it, and put the key back in his pocket.

"Off to the next adventure!" he said, grinning madly.

"Okay." She said, following him out onto the streets. They went down the road into the village and Hinata could see the sun in the sky and felt like could fly and touch the sky. She felt so amazing! She was finally on her date with Naruto-kun, despite that rather…theatrical start…She bit her lip, feeling sheepish.

She resisted the urge to apologize to Naruto again, when she realize something important.

How could she have missed it?

He wasn't wearing a mask.

She stopped dead in her tracks.

"Hinata?" Naruto looked back to see her gaping.

"Naruto-kun…"

"Yeah?"

"Your mask, did you forget it?"

He patted his naked cheek with his free hand. "Nah."

"Oh."

She vaguely remembered the last time she'd walked in town with Naruto not wearing his mask.

"So, what do you want to do?" he asked her, turning around and walking backwards in front of her, showing off and grinning.

"I'm sure you're hungry." Hinata said, biting back a smile unsuccessfully.

"Hinata-chan, those words are music to my ears!" he said theatrically, putting a hand over his heart and leering backwards.

"Choose your place and there we shall dine, Hinata-hime!" he said cheerfully, turning around and walking fairly normally again. The moment he did so Hinata saw something.

The villagers were _glaring_ at them. They saw Naruto and nothing but hate and anger came from their eyes. She felt it, because she was walking behind him. This was…so unusual for her, but of course she knew why. It was somewhat surprising Naruto hadn't started acting differently. Tonight, he was just acting goofy, happy... It was the Naruto she knew well from the Academy…

She bit her lip, and did her best to ignore the _stares_. An old lady sweeping the ground in front of her shop, a few men discussing the price of an item, some women with children gossiping in a corner…it was like the entire street was unreal, a façade: because every so often the old lady would shake her head with a disapproving face, the men would stare at Naruto with hatred, the women would exchange a hateful word about him…

Hinata felt tears welling in her eyes and suddenly felt so _angry._ Angry at her village, her father, her stupid _clan_. Naruto-kun was the nicest person she knew! And she wasn't going to stand by like this!

She rushed forward, to walk next to him, and took his hand. He looked at their hands, then at her with ill-masked surprise in his eyes.

She smiled. "What about that place over there? The food smells really good."

He grinned back at her. "Genius, Hinata, pure genius!" She blushed, and they went towards the restaurant.

Right before entering the restaurant, she turned her head around and saw the people peering at them, pretending not to be.

She glared back at them and stuck out her tongue, something Hyuuga Hinata had never done before, something quite unbecoming of the daughter of the Head of the Clan. And Hinata found that, for Naruto-kun, she couldn't care less what image she gave off of herself, but she would show them that she would stand by him, no matter what.

**

* * *

**

They talked a little bit over the food and Hinata had the weird feeling that if she hadn't been there, the small restaurant would have thrown him out long ago, no questions asked. This level of animosity simply boggled her. But she did her best to seem unfazed. She wondered why they didn't act like this most of the time when she was with her teammate. But most of the time he wore his mask…Did that mean they didn't recognize him in full shinobi gear?

"Whatcha thinking about, Hinata?" Naruto asked cheerfully.

"Oh, uhh…nothing really. You are finished?"

"Yup!" he answered. "It was really good food, good choice, Hinata!"

She blushed, but didn't hesitate. "Thank you."

He paid the bill, which made Hinata blush when usually they each paid their own food. She helped him out of the small place, because with his crutch it wasn't that easy to maneuver.

"So, what's next?" he asked, excited.

"I…don't know."

She'd never been on a date before, so she hadn't the slightest idea of what to expect, really. Oh, she'd heard all about it whenever she listened to ether Sakura or Ino went they switched to 'fangirl' mode. But, now that it was happening to her, she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Alright! That means it's my turn to choose where to go! And I say we get out of this stuffy place!" he took her hand and marched away down the street, deciding not to use his crutch.

"Naru-Naruto-kun! Your crutch…you'll-"

Naruto rolled his eyes but stopped.

"Don't worry about me, okay Hinata? I've been through worse."

She nodded, even though she was still worried for him. They walked in silence towards the parks on the outskirts of town. It was a lot quieter here, people heading back into town and Hinata relaxed as she realized that she no longer felt the mean eyes on them. Discreetly, she checked the area surrounding them and saw that they were now alone.

She smiled happily.

They both sat down on a small hill overlooking the forest, and on the horizon the sun was settling down, sunset was maybe an hour away. By them stood a large tree, which Naruto used to lean against, relieving the pressure from his broken kneecap and without her Byakugan, Hinata doubted she would have caught the look of relief that crossed his face.

She sat in front of him, facing the sun, and decided to not say anything. She didn't want to annoy him any further.

"Hey, Hinata?"

Maybe she shouldn't had been so surprised when Konoha's number one hyperactive loudmouth broke the silence for her.

She turned her head around and looked at him, her gaze questioning.

"Sorry."

"Huh?" Hinata wondered.

"Uhh…I'm sorry about tonight…I mean, I didn't want to wear the mask…you know, because… but…"

"Naruto-kun, what…?"

"Look, okay?" Naruto had never been good with words, and lost patience, "I'm sorry everybody was looking at you like that, okay! I just wanted you to have fun and stuff, and…well…let's just say tonight wasn't as great as you wanted it because I decided not to wear the stupid mask!"

Hinata's eyes widened.

She got up and sat beside him, and he watched her every move, looking rather confused. He watched her put her head on his shoulder, and gulped.

"Is that what you think?" She asked quietly, "I don't care about all that."

Naruto blinked. "Oh."

Hinata grinned, something he couldn't see, and said in a hushed yet knowing tone: "Oh."

"And for your information, I had lots of fun tonight." She said happily, getting up slightly. "But I better go home soon, before the sun sets."

They smiled at each other rather shyly, and got up, Hinata helping him up on his still-in-pain knee. He, to her surprise, didn't let go of her hand, and he walked her home. His crutch was carried, as it was awkward to hold hands while limping, and they stayed in comfortable silence.

They arrived at the gate the moment the sun was disappearing under the horizon and Hyuuga Hiashi was waiting on the other side of the half-open gate. Hinata lost her cheerful eyes as she got closer and closer to her home, and Naruto felt more and more uncomfortable. With one last squeeze of her hand, he let go, smiling slightly.

"See you tomorrow, Hinata-chan?"

She smiled a heartbreaking smile and Naruto felt rather odd as she walked through the gates of her home. The gates closed and the last thing he saw were her eyes, and Hiashi looking straight through him.

Sighing, he turned the other way and walked home.


End file.
